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Chechens
Нохчий
Noxçiy
Total population
c. 2 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Russia1,431,360[2]
     Chechnya1,206,551[3]
     Dagestan93,658[3]
     Ingushetia18,765[3]
     Moscow Oblast14,524[3]
     Stavropol Krai11,980[3]
     Rostov Oblast11,449[3]
     Volgograd Oblast9,649[3]
     Astrakhan Oblast7,229[3]
     Tyumen Oblast6,889[3]
 EU      France      Austria      Belgium      Germany      Sweden      Poland      Denmark130,000 (2009)[4]
 Turkey100,000[5][6]
 Kazakhstan32,894[7]
 Jordan12,000–30,000[8]
 Iraq11,000[9]
 Georgia10,100 (including Kist people)
 Syria6,000–35,000[10][11]
 Egypt5,000[5]
 Ukraine2,877[12]
 United Arab Emirates2,000–3,000[13]
 Finland636[14]
 United States250–1,000[15]
Data figures from 2001 to 2013;
see also Chechen diaspora.[16]
Languages
Chechen
Russian (in former USSR countries spoken as a L2)
Religion
Islam (Shafi'i and Hanafi Sunni Muslims). Sufism is historically very prevalent among Chechens.
Related ethnic groups
Nakh peoples (Ingush people, Bats people)

The Chechens (/ˈtʃɛtʃən/; Chechen: нохчий, noxçiy, Old Chechen: нахчой, naxçoy), historically also known as Kisti[17] and Durdzuks,[17] are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe.[18] They refer to themselves as Nokhchiy (pronounced [no̞xtʃʼiː]; singular Nokhchi, Nakhchuo or Nakhtche).[19] Chechen and Ingush peoples are collectively known as the Vainakh (which means our people in Chechen) since the 1930s and were known as Nakhchi prior.[20] The vast majority of Chechens today are Muslims[21] and live in Chechnya, a republic of Russia.

The North Caucasus has been subject to innumerable invaders since time immemorial. Its isolated terrain and the strategic value outsiders have placed on the areas settled by Chechens has contributed much to the Chechen community ethos and helped shape its national character.

Chechen society has traditionally been egalitarian and organized around many autonomous local clans, called teips.

Etymology[edit]

Chechen[edit]

According to popular tradition, the Russian term Chechency (Чеченцы) comes from Central Chechnya, which had several important villages and towns named after the word Chechen. These places include Chechan, Nana-Checha ("Mother Checha"), and Yokkh Chechen ("Greater Chechena").[22] The name Chechen occurs in Russian sources in the late 16th century as "Chachana", which is mentioned as a land owned by the Chechen Prince Shikh Murza.[23] The etymology is of Nakh origin and originates from the word Che ("inside") attached to the suffix -cha/chan, which altogether can be translated as "inside territory". The villages and towns named Chechan were always situated in the Chechan-Are ("Chechen flatlands or plains") located in today's Central Chechnya.[24][25]

Nokhchiy[edit]

Group portrait of Chechen men and young woman in traditional costumes. 19th century

Although Chechan (Chechen) was a term used by Chechens to denote a certain geographic area (Central Chechnya), Chechens called themselves Nakhchiy (highland dialects) or Nokhchiy (lowland dialects). The oldest mention of Nakhchiy occurred in 1310 by the Georgian Patriarch Cyrill Donauri, who mentions the 'People of Nakhche' among Tushetians, Avars and many other Northeast Caucasian nations. The term Nakhchiy has also been connected to the city Nakhchivan and the nation of Nakhchamatyan (mentioned in the 7th century) by many Soviet and modern historians. Chechen manuscripts in Arabic from the early 1820s do mention a certain Nakhchuvan (near modern-day Kagizman, Turkey) as the homeland of all Nakhchiy. The etymology of the term Nakhchiy can also be understood as a compound formed with Nakh ('people') attached to Chuo ('territory').[25][26]

Geography and diaspora[edit]

Main article: Chechen diaspora
Terloy-Moxk, Oshni village. 1906

The Chechens are mainly inhabitants of Chechnya. There are also significant Chechen populations in other subdivisions of Russia especially in Aukh (part of modern-day Dagestan), Ingushetia and Moscow.

Ushcaloy, Chechnya
Sharoy village

Outside Russia, countries with significant diaspora populations are Kazakhstan, Turkey and Arab states (especially Jordan and Iraq): those in Iraq and Jordan are mainly descendants of families who had to leave Chechnya during the Caucasian War, which led to the annexation of Chechnya by the Russian Empire around 1850, while those in Kazakhstan originate from the ethnic cleansing of the entire population carried out by Joseph Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria in 1944. Tens of thousands of Chechen refugees settled in the European Union and elsewhere as the result of the recent Chechen Wars, especially in the wave of emigration to the West after 2002.[27]

History[edit]

Main article: History of Chechnya

Prehistory & origin[edit]

The Chechens are one of the Nakh peoples, who have lived in the highlands of the North Caucasus region since prehistory.[28] There is archeological evidence of historical continuity dating back since 3000 B.C.[29][28] as well as evidence pointing to their ancestors’ migration from the Fertile Crescent c. 10,000–8,000 B.C.[29]

Main article: Nakh_peoples § Origin_hypotheses

The discussion of their origins is intertwined with the discussion of the mysterious origins of Nakh peoples as a whole. The only three surviving Nakh peoples are Chechens, Ingush and Bats, but they are thought by some scholars to be the remnants of what was once a larger family of peoples.

They are thought to either be descended from original settlers of the Caucasus (North and/or South)[30][31] or supposedly Nakh-speaking ethnic minorities in the north-eastern regions of the ancient state of Urartu (whose people also spoke a language that was possibly related to the Nakh languages).[32] The two theories are not mutually incompatible, and there has been much evidence that seems to link the two (either by dual origins or the "return" theory, in which the Nakh peoples originally lived in the Caucasus, migrated down to the south, lived there for a long period of time, and then returned to the Caucasus).

According to the opinion of Caucasus folklorist Amjad Jaimoukha, "It is certain that the Nakh constituted an important component of the Hurrian-Urartian tribes in the Trans-Caucasus and played a role in the development of their influential cultures."[17]

Amjad Jaimoukha notes in his book “The Chechens”: «Some authorities believe that the Nakh nation was an offspring of the Hurrians and Urartians, builders of the magnificent civilizations of the Near East, that had a profound influences upon other cultures of the region».[33] According to some data, Chechens are genetically, linguistically and anthropologically considered the descendants of the Hurrians and Urartians.[34][35][33][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]

According to scholars, the Minoans and Etruscans were also relatives of the Chechens among the ancient nations.[44][45] Some scholars suggested that the Etruscan language is related to the Northeast Caucasian languages, especially to the Nakh family.[46][47]

Antiquity[edit]

Main article: Durdzuks

Ancestors of the modern Chechens and Ingush were known as Durdzuks. According to The Georgian Chronicles before his death, Targamos [Togarmah] divided the country amongst his sons, with Kavkasos [Caucas], the eldest and most noble, receiving the Central Caucasus. Kavkasos engendered the Chechen tribes, and his descendant, Durdzuk, who took residence in a mountainous region, later called "Dzurdzuketia" after him, established a strong state in the fourth and third centuries BC.[48] Among the Chechen teips, the teip Zurzakoy, consonant with the ethnonym Dzurdzuk, living in the Itum-Kale region of Chechnya. Dzurdzuks and Nakhchmateans were remnants of the Urartians.[33]

Georgian historian G.A. Melikishvili posited that although there was evidence of Nakh settlement in Southern Caucasus areas, this did not rule out the possibility that they also lived in the North Caucasus. Prior to the invasion of the Cimmerians and Scythians, the Nakh had inhabited the Central Caucasus and the steppe lands all the way to the Volga river in the northeast and the Caspian Sea to the east.[49]

It has been noted that at many points, Urartu in fact extended through Kakheti into the North Caucasus. Jaimoukha notes in his book: “The kingdom of Urartu, which was made up of several small states, flourished in the 9th and 7th centuries BCE, and extended into the North Caucasus at the peaks of its power.”[17]

The mighty state of Durdzuketi has been known since the 4th century BC.[17] In the Armenian Chronicles mention that the Durdzuks defeated Scythians and became a significant power in the region in the first millennium BC.[17]

Others, like Amjad Jaimoukha, traces the name Durdzuk to an ancient city north of Lake Urmia, near Nakhichevan (Nakhichevan is thought to be a Nakh placename by some).

Other groups of peoples attributed to being the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush include the Gargareans (from the Nakh root gergara, meaning "Kin"; reported by Strabo to have "returned" from the South Caucasus to the North Caucasus, fleeing the wars in the south) and the Nakhchmateans (Armenian chronicles).

The Vainakh in the East had an affinity to Georgia, while the Malkh Kingdom of the West looked to the new Greek kingdom of Bosporus on the Black Sea coast (though it may have also had relations with Georgia as well).[17] Adermalkh, king of the Malkh state, married the daughter of the Bosporan king in 480 BCE.[17] Malkhi is one of the Chechen tukkhums.[50][51][52][53][54][55][56]

Medieval[edit]

Main article: Mongol invasions of Durdzuketia
Chechen warrior

In the Middle Ages, the lowland of Chechnya was dominated by the Khazars and then the Alans. Local culture was also subject to Georgian influence and some Chechens converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. With a presence dating back to the seventh century, Islam gradually spread among the Chechens[57] although the Chechens' own pagan religion was still strong until the 19th century. Society was organised along feudal lines. Chechnya was devastated by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century and those of Tamerlane in the 14th.[58][59] The Chechens bear the distinction of being one of the few peoples to successfully resist the Mongols and defend themselves against their invasions; not once, but twice, though this came at great cost to them, as their state was utterly destroyed. These events were key in the shaping of the Chechen nationhood and their martial-oriented and clan-based society.[60]

Early modern period[edit]

Main articles: Circassian genocide and Caucasian War

The Caucasus was a major competing area for two neighboring rival empires: the Ottoman and Persian Empires (Safavids, Afsharids, Qajars). Starting from 1555 and decisely from 1639 through the first half of the 19th century, the Caucasus was divided by these two powers, with the Ottomans prevailing in Western Georgia, while Persia kept the bulk of the Caucasus, namely Eastern Georgia, Southern Dagestan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.[61] The Chechens, however, never really fell under the rule of either empire. As Russia expanded slowly southwards as early as the 16th century, clashes between Chechens and the Russians became more frequent, and it became three empires competing for the region. During these turbulent times the Chechens were organized into semi-independent clans that were loyal to the Mexk-Kela (National Council). The Mehk-Kela was in charge of appointing the Mehk-Da (Ruler of the nation). Several of these appeared during the Late Middle Ages such as Aldaman Gheza, Tinavin-Visa, Zok-K'ant and others. The administration and military expeditions commanded by Aldaman Gheza during the 1650-1670s led to Chechnya being largely untouched by the major empires of the time. Alliances were concluded with local lords against Persian encroachment and battles were fought to stop Russian influence.[62] As Russia set off to increase its political influence in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea at the expense of Safavid Persia, Peter I launched the Russo-Persian War (1722-1723), in which Russia succeeded in taking much of the Caucasian territories for several years. Notable in Chechen history, this particular Russo-Persian War marked the first military encounter between Imperial Russia and the Vainakh.[63] Sheikh Mansur led a major Chechen resistance movement in the late 18th century.

Tomb of a Chechen warrior of the 19th century

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Russia embarked on full-scale conquest of the North Caucasus in the Caucasian War. Much of the campaign was led by General Yermolov who particularly disliked the Chechens, describing them as "a bold and dangerous people".[64] Angered by Chechen raids, Yermolov resorted to a brutal policy of "scorched earth" and deportations; he also founded the fort of Grozny (now the capital of Chechnya) in 1818. Chechen resistance to Russian rule reached its peak under the leadership of the Dagestani leader Imam Shamil. The Chechens were finally defeated in 1861 after a bloody war that lasted for decades, during which they lost most of their entire population.[65] In the aftermath, large numbers of refugees also emigrated or were forcibly deported to the Ottoman Empire.[66][67][68]

Nineteenth and twentieth centuries[edit]

Main articles: Deportation of Chechens and Ingush and First Chechen war
Chechen family from 1920

Since then, there have been various Chechen rebellions against Russian/Soviet power in 1865–66, 1877, during the Russian Civil War and World War II, as well as nonviolent resistance to Russification and the Soviet Union's collectivization and anti-religion campaigns. In 1944, all Chechens, together with several other peoples of the Caucasus, were ordered by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to be deported en masse to the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSRs; and their republic and nation were abolished. At least one-quarter—and perhaps half—of the entire Chechen population perished in the process, and a severe blow was made to their culture and historical records.[66][69][70] Though "rehabilitated" in 1956 and allowed to return the next year, the survivors lost economic resources and civil rights and, under both Soviet and post-Soviet governments, they have been the objects of both official and unofficial discrimination and discriminatory public discourse.[66][71] Chechen attempts to regain independence in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union led to the first and the second war with the new Russian state, starting in 1994.

Language[edit]

Main article: Chechen language
Chechen-Soviet newspaper, Serlo(light), written in the Chechen Latin script during Korenizatsiya.

The main language of the Chechen people is Chechen. Chechen belongs to the family of Nakh languages (Northeast Caucasian languages). Literary Chechen is based on the central lowland dialect. Other related languages include Ingush, which has speakers in the neighbouring Ingushetia, and Batsbi, which is the language of the people in the adjoining part of Georgia. At various times in their history, Chechens used Georgian, Arabic and Latin alphabets; as of 2008, the official script is Russian Cyrillic. Usually linguists attributed Ingush and Batsbi to the Chechen language (to the Chechen dialects or to Chechen languages) before the endoethnonym Nakh and Vainakh appeared at the beginning of the 20th century[72].[73][74][75]

Most Chechens living in their homeland can understand Ingush with ease. The two languages are not truly mutually intelligible, but it is easy for Chechens to learn how to understand the Ingush language and vice versa over time after hearing it for a while.[citation needed]

In 1989, 73.4% spoke Russian,[76] though this figure has declined due to the wars for a large number of reasons (including the lack of proper education, the refusal to learn the language, and the mass dispersal of the Chechen diaspora due to the war). Chechens in the diaspora often speak the language of the country they live in (English, French, German, Arabic, Polish, Georgian, Turkish, etc.).

The Nakh languages are a subgroup of Northeast Caucasian, and as such are related to Nakho-Dagestanian family, including the languages of the Avars, Dargins, Lezghins, Laks, etc. However, this relationship is not a close one: the Nakho-Dagestani family is of comparable or greater time-depth than Indo-European, meaning Chechens are only as linguistically related to Avars or Dargins as the French are to the Russians or Iranians.[citation needed]

Genetics[edit]

Further information: Genetic history of the Caucasus
Chechen veterans of the Great Patriotic War

Genetic tests on Chechens, have shown roots mostly in the Caucasus as well as slight connections to and influences from the Middle East as well as Europe. As is the case with many other Caucasian peoples, Chechens are broadly connected with European populations on the Y-DNA (the paternal side) from all European regions, but narrowly closer to Western Europeans in terms of mitochondrial DNA (the maternal side).[77]

A 2004 study of the mtDNA showed Chechens to be diverse in the mitochondrial genome, with 18 different haplogroups out of only 23 samples. This correlates with all other North Caucasian peoples such as the Ingush, Avars and Circassians where the mitochondrial DNA is very diverse.[77][78][79][80][81] They clustered closer to European populations than Middle Eastern populations this time, but were closer to Western European populations (Basques and Britons) than to Eastern European populations (Russians and other Slavs, as well as Estonians), despite living in the East. They actually clustered about as close to Basques as they did to Ingush (Chechens also cluster closer to many other populations than Ingush, such as Abazins), but the Chechens were the closer to the Ingush than any other population, the imbalance probably largely being due to the uniqueness of the Ingush on the mitochondrial DNA among those tested.[77] However the FTDNA groups show that Mitochondrial DNA is very diverse in the North Caucasus in general with Chechens having 12 mtDNA haplogroups out of 108 samples and Ingush 9 out of 15 samples.[82][79]

The most recent study on Chechens, by Balanovsky et al. in 2011[83] sampled a total of 330 Chechens from three sample locations (one in Malgobek, one in Achkhoy-Martan, and one from two sites in Dagestan) and found the following frequencies: A weak majority of Chechens belong to Haplogroup J2 (56.7%[83]), which is associated with Mediterranean, Caucasian and Fertile Crescent populations. Other notable values were found among North Caucasian Turkic peoples (Kumyks (25%)[84] and Balkars (24%)[85]). It is notable that J2 suddenly collapses as one enters the territory of non-Nakh Northeast Caucasian peoples, dropping to very low values among Dagestani peoples.[77][83][86][87] The overwhelming bulk of Chechen J2 is of the subclade J2a4b* (J2-M67), of which the highest frequencies by far are found among Nakh peoples: Chechens were 55.2% according to the Balanovsky study, while Ingush were 87.4%. Other notable haplogroups that appeared consistently appeared at high frequencies included J1 (20.9%), L (7.0%), G2 (5.5%), R1a (3.9%), Q-M242 (3%) and R1b-M269 (1.8%, but much higher in Chechnya itself as opposed to Dagestani or Ingushetian Chechens). Overall, tests have shown consistently that Chechens are most closely related to Ingush, Circassians and other North Caucasians, occasionally showing a kinship to other peoples in some tests. Balanovsky's study showed the Ingush to be the Chechens' closest relatives by far.[83][87][88]

A German anthropologist Bruno Plaetschke describes the Anthropology of the Chechens as follows:[89].

Russian military historian and lieutenant general, V.A. Potto describes the appearance of the Chechens as follows: “The Chechen is handsome and strong. Tall, slender, with sharp features and a quick, determined look, he amazes with his mobility, agility, dexterity."[90]

Culture[edit]

See also: Vainakh tower architecture, Vainakh mythology, Chechen cuisine, and Chechen art
Istang, a type of woven Chechen carpet

Prior to the adoption of Islam, the Chechens practiced a unique blend of religious traditions and beliefs. They partook in numerous rites and rituals, many of them pertaining to farming; these included rain rites, a celebration that occurred on the first day of plowing, as well as the Day of the Thunderer Sela and the Day of the Goddess Tusholi. In addition to sparse written record from the Middle Ages, Chechens traditionally remember history through the illesh, a collection of epic poems and stories.

An example of Chechen tower architecture, ruins of the medieval settlement of Nikaroy

Chechens are accustomed to democratic ways, their social structure being firmly based on equality, pluralism and deference to individuality. Chechen society is structured around tukkhum (unions of clans) and about 130 teip, or clans. The teips are based more on land and one-side lineage than on blood (as exogamy is prevalent and encouraged), and are bonded together to form the Chechen nation. Teips are further subdivided into gar (branches), and gars into nekye (patronymic families). The Chechen social code is called nokhchallah (where Nokhchuo stands for "Chechen") and may be loosely translated as "Chechen character". The Chechen code of honor implies moral and ethical behaviour, generosity and the will to safeguard the honor of women. The traditional Chechen saying goes that the members of Chechen society, like its teips, are (ideally) "free and equal like wolves".[91][92]

A phandar, a traditional Chechen musical instrument

Chechens today have a strong sense of nation, which is enforced by the old clan network and nokhchalla – the obligation to clan, tukhum, etc. This is often combined with old values transmuted into a modern sense. They are mythically descended from the epic hero, Turpalo-Nokhchuo ("Chechen Hero"). There is a strong theme of representing the nation with its national animal, the wolf. Due to their strong dependence on the land, its farms and its forests (and indeed, the national equation with the wolf), Chechens have a strong sense of affection for nature. According to Chechen philosopher Apty Bisultanov, ruining an ant-hill or hunting Caucasian goats during their mating season was considered extremely sinful.[93] It is notable that the glasnost era Chechen independence movement, Bart (unity) in fact originated as a simple environmentalist organization in the republic's capital of Grozny.[94]

Chechen culture puts a strong value on the concept of freedom. This asserts itself in a number of ways. A large majority of the nation's national heroes fought for independence (or otherwise, like the legendary Zelimkhan, robbed from the Russian oppressors in order to feed Chechen children in a Robin Hood-like fashion). A common greeting in the Chechen language, marsha oylla, is literally translated as "enter in freedom". The word for freedom also encompasses notions of peace and prosperity.

A Chechen man prays during the Battle of Grozny. The flame in the background is from a gas line hit by shrapnel. (January 1995)

Chechens are sometimes referred to as the "French of the Caucasus", for a number of reasons (it is notable that the Circassians are the "English of the Caucasus", and the Georgians are the "Italians of the Caucasus"). This comparison may refer to either political/historical traits, or to personality characteristics. Like the French, who overthrew their age-old monarchy in the French Revolution, the Chechens had a similar revolution a century or two earlier,[95] and like the French, they bore the distinction (for a period) of being the only egalitarian society in an area full of monarchic states. Like the French, the Chechens preferred swift, revolutionary (and often violent) methods to realize the change they wished to see – unlike the Circassians (called the "English of the Caucasus" both for their political and personality characteristics) who preferred more gradualist methods.[96] Chechens were also called "French" by early Russian military officers and the French anthropologist Ernest Chantre who noted their "happy and witty" nature.[97]

Religion[edit]

Chechen Mosque Architecture

Chechnya is predominantly Muslim.[21] Chechens are overwhelmingly adherents to the Shafi'i Madhhab of Sunni Islam,[98] the republic having converted to Islam between the 16th and the 19th centuries. Most of the population follows either the Shafi'i or the Hanafi,[99] schools of jurisprudence, fiqh. The Shafi'i school of jurisprudence has a long tradition among the Chechens,[100] and thus it remains the most practiced.[101] Some adhere to the mystical Sufi tradition of muridism, while about half of Chechens belong to Sufi brotherhoods, or tariqah. The two Sufi tariqas that spread in the North Caucasus were the Naqshbandiya and the Qadiriya (the Naqshbandiya is particularly strong in Dagestan and eastern Chechnya, whereas the Qadiriya has most of its adherents in the rest of Chechnya and Ingushetia). There are also small Christian and atheist minorities, although their numbers are unknown in Chechnya; in Kazakhstan, they are roughly 3% and 2% of the Chechen population respectively.[102]

A stereotype of an average Chechen being a fundamentalist Muslim is incorrect and misleading.[103][104] By the late 2000s, however, two new trends have emerged in Chechnya. A radicalized remnant of the armed Chechen separatist movement has become dominated by Salafis (popularly known in Russia as Wahhabis and present in Chechnya in small numbers since the 1990s), mostly abandoning nationalism in favor of Pan-Islamism and merging with several other regional Islamic insurgencies to form the Caucasus Emirate. At the same time, Chechnya under Moscow-backed authoritarian rule of Ramzan Kadyrov has undergone its own controversial counter-campaign of Islamization of the republic, with the local government actively promoting and enforcing their own version of a so-called "traditional Islam", including introducing elements of Sharia that replaced Russian official laws.[105][106][107][108]

See also[edit]

  • List of Chechen people
  • Nakh peoples
  • Ingush people
  • North Caucasian people
  • Islam in Russia

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  31. ^ Johanna Nichols (February 1997). "The Ingush (with notes on the Chechen): Background information". University of California, Berkeley. Archived from the original on March 11, 2008. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  32. ^ Jaimoukha. Chechens. Page 29.
  33. ^ a b c Jaimoukha, Amjad (2004-11-10). The Chechens. p. 28. doi:10.4324/9780203356432. ISBN 978-0-203-35643-2.
  34. ^ "The Urartian language itself took several generations to decipher and is now believed to be a distant ancestor of existing Caucasian languages such as Chechen".
  35. ^ "Chechnya i Rossiya: obshchestva i gosudarstva: Sb. materialov konferentsii. Pod red. D.Furmana. M .: Polinform-Talburi." English translation: "This sounds extremely unexpected, but it is. The Chechen nation is the ethnic root part of the Caucasian race, one of the oldest sources of human civilization, the fundamental principle of spirituality, passed through the Hurrian, Mittani, Urartian cultures.". 1999. ISBN 978-5-93516-004-3.
  36. ^ Ortaylı, Ilber. "English translation: "Most of the historical facts indicate that the language of the ancient state of Urartu is closer to the modern Chechen one. It is highly probable that the ancestors of modern Chechens moved to the territory of the North Caucasus from Anatolia, from Urartu".
  37. ^ "English translation: "Today, urartologists do not deny the kinship of the Chechens with the Urartians. The kinship of the Hurrians-Urartians-Chechens is confirmed by those who studied it. Hence the following conclusion follows. Chechens are Urartians. Urartians is the remaining branch of the Chechens in Asia Minor. Actually its structure, grammatical features, completeness and grammar of classes, etc. Urartian and Chechen are similar to each other". ATLAS monthly geography and exploration magazine. March 2003. Issue 120.2.
  38. ^ «Chechens are not actually Caucasians, but ethnically and linguistically sharply separated from other mountain peoples of the Caucasus. They are the offspring of the great Hyperborean-Paleo-Asian tribe, displaced to the Caucasus, which extended from Turan through northern Mesopotamia and into Canaan.» «With its vocalism, its structure, the Chechen language as a member of the family, which once geographically and genetically stood closer to the Proto-Hamitic-Iberian, or Proto-Phrygian, than to the Caucasian languages proper.» «The Chechen is a leaping northern offspring of the proto-language, which once occupied a more southern territory, namely, in the pre-Armenian-Alarodian [Urartian] Western Asia. Traces of Nachtšuoi's [Chechens] stay in the country of Ararat [Urartu] are found in toponymy as Nachtševan, Nakhtshuan (Nachidschevan). This alone explains the strongly Alarodian [Urartian]-Armenoid character of the Chechen language, which deviates from the normal Caucasian sound system.» _______________________________________ Joseph Karst, Ph. D, 1. «Origines mediterraneae. Die vorgeschichtlichen Mittelmeervölker nach Ursprung, Schichtung und Verwandtschaft. Ethnologisch-Linguistische Forschungen». Heidelberg, 1931, p. 85.; 2. «Grundzüge einer Vergleichenden Grammatik des Ibero-kaukasischen», Band I, Strassburg, 1932, p. 29.
  39. ^ The anthropology of Chechens and Ingush is somewhat different. The Ingush belong to the central cluster of the Caucasian [Mtebid] anthropotype, with pronounced brachycephalization, which indicates a strong mixing with the Koban culture. Whereas the Chechens, although they belong mainly to the Caucasians [Mtebids], combine many elements of the Caspian and even the Pontid. In addition, the Chechens have the highest percentage of the dolichocephalic index among the characteristic brachycephalic Caucasions [Mtebids]. All this testifies that the Chechens, to a greater extent, have preserved the Hurrian substratum. J. Taisayev. «Etnogenez narodov Kavkaza.». 5 September 2017. p. 131. ISBN 978-5-04-005867-9.
  40. ^ ""The Urartians themselves, or Alarodians, called their country and state Biainili, from which comes the modern name of Lake Van, in the basin of which the center of this state was located. Since ancient times, Urartian (Alarodian) tribes, akin to the Hurrian population of the countries to the southwest of Lake Van, lived around Lake Van and in adjacent areas. The Urartian (as well as the Hurrian) language belonged to a special linguistic family, among the modern languages the closest to them are some languages of the North Caucasus - Chechen and Ingush."". «Materialy po istorii SSSR. Dlya seminarskikh i prakticheskikh zanyatiy. Vyp. 1. Drevneyshiye narody i gosudarstva na territorii SSSR.». 1985. p. 7.CS1 maint: others (link)
  41. ^ Wilhelm, Gernot (1982). "The long-standing assumptions about the connections of Hurrian and Urartian with the Caucasian languages have received serious confirmation thanks to the collected ... correspondences identified in the North-East Caucasian languages, and especially in Vainakh". Darmstadt. ISBN 3-534-08151-X.
  42. ^ "The most ancient state on the territory of our country was the Urartian kingdom in the Transcaucasus. The word "Urartu" (the memory of it is preserved in the name of Mount Ararat) is Assyrian, but the inhabitants themselves called their country Biainili (hence - Lake Van). The Alarodian (or Urartian) tribes living around this lake, who spoke a language that has not survived to this day (of the modern ones, Chechen and Ingush are the closest to it), back in the 13th century. BC e. created their own tribal union. ". «Pavlenko N.I., Kobrin V.B., Fedorov V.A. Istoriya SSSR s drevneyshikh vremen do 1861 goda. (Uchebnik dlya pedagogicheskikh institutov), M., 1989 g.». 1989. ISBN 5-09-000551-6.CS1 maint: others (link)
  43. ^ "Of the peoples existing in our time, the Chechens and Ingush are the closest to the Hurrian-Urartian in terms of language ". «Aleksandrova N.V., Ladynin I.A., Nemirovskiy A.A., Yakovlev V.M. Drevniy Vostok. Uchebnoye posobiye dlya vuzov.». 2008. p. 371. ISBN 978-5-17-045827-1.CS1 maint: others (link)
  44. ^ "Among the distant relatives of the Chechens, scholars have discovered the now extinct Minoans and Etruscans". TASS is a state news agency at the federal level since 1904 https://tass.ru/tass-today. External link in |publisher= (help)
  45. ^ "At the same time, these facts eloquently indicate the genetic connection of the Vainakh ancestors with Anatolia, the Cretan-Mycenaean culture [Minoans] and Mesopotamia.". Dzh. Taysayev. Etnogenez narodov Kavkaza. 5 September 2017. p. 131. ISBN 978-5-04-005867-9.CS1 maint: others (link)
  46. ^ "It is the analysis of derivatives in -n- that leads to the conclusion that Etruscan was the result of the development of one of the Hurrian dialects ... Concluding, we can say that Etruscan could belong to the same area of the North Caucasian languages of the Ancient East as Hurrian-Urartian; the time of formation these areal connections most likely should be attributed no later than the III millennium BC All these data confirm the solidity of the ancient tradition that brought the Etruscans out of Asia Minor, where the original territory of the distribution of the Praetrusian-Lemnos dialect, which was probably part of the Hurrian linguistic community ... As in some other cases, the Etruscan reflection is close to the Nakh.". V.V. Ivanov. «Drevnevostochnyye svyazi etrusskogo yazyka» («Drevniy vostok. Etnokul'turnyye svyazi», M., 1988 g.). 1988. p. 208. ISBN 5-02-016792-4.CS1 maint: others (link)
  47. ^ "The belonging of the Etruscan language to the East Caucasian language family is proved on the basis of about 50 etymologies of Etruscan words, the meanings of which are reliably determined by non-etymological methods. At the same time, among the Etruscan words of East Caucasian origin, there are elements of basic vocabulary (such as numerals of the first ten, kinship names, verbs associated with the sphere of donation and exchange, the names of animals) ... Both the historical phonetics of the Etruscan language and the proposed etymologies reveal significant similarities with the phonetics and lexical composition of another ancient branch of the East Caucasian family - the Hurrian-Urartian. ". «Kavkaz i tsivilizatsii Drevnego Vostoka. Materialy vsesoyuznoy nauchnoy konferentsii. Orel V.E., Starostin S.A. O prinadlezhnosti etrusskogo yazyka k vostochnokavkazskoy yazykovoy sem'ye.». p. 105. ISBN 978-5-7534-0273-8.CS1 maint: others (link)
  48. ^ Jaimoukha, Amjad (2004-11-10). The Chechens. Routledge. p. 31. doi:10.4324/9780203356432. ISBN 978-0-203-35643-2.
  49. ^ Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Page 24. "Also, the Georgian historian G.A. Melikishvili maintained that the formation of the Vainakh took place much earlier than the first century BC. Though evidence of Nakh settlement was found on the southern slopes of the Caucasus in the second and first millennia BC, he did not rule out the possibility of their residence in the northern and eastern regions of the Caucasus. It is traditionally accepted that the Vainakh have existed in the Caucasus, with their present territory as a nucleus of a larger domicile, for thousands of years, and that it was the ‘birthplace’ of their ethnos, to which the peoples who inhabited the Central Caucasus and the steppe lands all the way to the Volga in the northeast and the Caspian Sea to the east contributed."
  50. ^ Крупнов Е. И. Древности Чечено-Ингушетии. — Изд-во Академии наук СССР, 1963. — с. 256
  51. ^ Натаев Сайпуди Альвиевич. ПРОБЛЕМА ЭТНОТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНОЙ СТРУКТУРЫ ЧЕЧНИ В XVIII–XIX ВВ. В ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ.
  52. ^ Марковин В. И. «В ущельях Аргуна и Фортанги». Москва, 1965 — с. 71
  53. ^ Мамакаев М. «Чеченский тайп в период его разложения». Грозный, 1973.
  54. ^ Шавхелишвили А. И. «Грузино-чечено-ингушские взаимоотношения». Тбилиси, 1992. — с.65, 72
  55. ^ Пиотровский Б. Б. История народов Северного Кавказа с древнейших времен до конца XVIII в. — Наука, 1988. — с.239
  56. ^ Н. Г. Волкова. Этнический состав населения Северного Кавказа в XVIII-начале XX века — Москва: Наука, 1974. — с.169
  57. ^ Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. New York: Routledge. p. 280. ISBN 1-57958-468-3.
  58. ^ Jaimoukha pp. 33–34
  59. ^ Dunlop p.3
  60. ^ Minahan, James (2000). One Europe, Many Nations: A Historical Dictionary of European National Groups. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-313-30984-7.
  61. ^ Peimani, Hooman (17 October 2018). Conflict and Security in Central Asia and the Caucasus. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-054-4. Retrieved 17 October 2018 – via Google Books.
  62. ^ "Гази Алдамов, или Алдаман ГIеза, воевода и предвод (Амин Тесаев) / Проза.ру". proza.ru.
  63. ^ Schaefer, Robert W. (2010). The Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus: From Gazavat to Jihad. ISBN 978-0-313-38634-3. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  64. ^ Dunlop p.14
  65. ^ Jaimoukha (p.50): "The Chechens suffered horrific losses in human life during the long war. From an estimated population of over a million in the 1840s, there were only 140,000 Chechens left in the Caucasus in 1861..."
  66. ^ a b c "Who are the Chechens?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-15. by Johanna Nichols, University of California, Berkeley.
  67. ^ Dunlop p.29ff. Dunlop writes (p.30): "In 1860, according to Soviet-era figures, 81,360 Chechens left for Turkey; a second emigration took place in 1865, when an additional 22,500 Chechens left. More than 100,000 Chechens were thus ethnically 'cleansed' during this process. This was perhaps a majority of their total population..."
  68. ^ Jaimoukha p.50
  69. ^ Jaimoukha p.58
  70. ^ Dunlop, Chapter 2 "Soviet Genocide", particularly pp. 70–71 ("How many died?")
  71. ^ Jaimoukha p.60
  72. ^ "But after their unification in 1934 into a single Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Region (Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic since 1936), the authorities did their best to ensure the merger of the Chechens and Ingush into a single people, for which a new name was created "Veinakhs / Vainakhs". In the 1960s-1980s. this identity was actively introduced into the consciousness of the Chechens and Ingush and gradually gained more and more popularity". V. A. Shnirel'man. Byt' alanami. Intellektualy i politika na Severnom Kavkaze v XX veke. p. 279.CS1 maint: others (link)
  73. ^ "Yazyki i narechiya Rossiyskoy Imperii, Statisticheskiy atlas Rossii A.F. Marksa, prilozheniye 14, Sankt-Peterburg, 1907 god".
  74. ^ "Kavkazskiy tolmach: (perevodchik s russkogo na glavnѣyshiye kavkazskiye yazyki)". 1891. p. 681.
  75. ^ "N. YA. Marr. Izbrannyye raboty".
  76. ^ Mikhailov, Valentin. Chechnya and Tatarstan
  77. ^ a b c d I. Nasidze, E. Y. S. Ling, D. Quinque et al., "Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome Variation in the Caucasus Archived 2011-06-08 at the Wayback Machine," Annals of Human Genetics (2004) 68,205–221.
  78. ^ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8525622_Mitochondrial_DNA_and_Y-Chromosome_Variation_in_the_Caucasus
  79. ^ a b "FamilyTreeDNA - Ingush DNA Project". www.familytreedna.com.
  80. ^ "FamilyTreeDNA - Awar-Ma'arul DNA Project". www.familytreedna.com.
  81. ^ "FamilyTreeDNA - Circassian DNA". www.familytreedna.com.
  82. ^ "FamilyTreeDNA - Chechen-Noahcho DNA Project". www.familytreedna.com.
  83. ^ a b c d Oleg Balanovsky et al., "Parallel Evolution of Genes and Languages in the Caucasus Region," Molecular Biology and Evolution 2011
  84. ^ Yunusbaev 2006
  85. ^ Battaglia, Vincenza; Fornarino, Simona; Al-Zahery, Nadia; Olivieri, Anna; Pala, Maria; Myres, Natalie M; King, Roy J; Rootsi, Siiri; Marjanovic, Damir (24 December 2008). "Y-chromosomal evidence of the cultural diffusion of agriculture in southeast Europe" (PDF). European Journal of Human Genetics. 17 (6): 820–830. doi:10.1038/ejhg.2008.249. PMC 2947100. PMID 19107149.
  86. ^ Yunusbaev 2006.
  87. ^ a b Caciagli et al, 2009. The key role of patrilineal inheritance in the genetic variation of Dagestani highlanders.
  88. ^ Nasidze et al. "Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome Variation in the Caucasus", Annals of Human Genetics (2004)
  89. ^ Plaetschke, Bruno (1929). ""The North Caucasians are superior in terms of bodily beauty to their neighboring peoples. It is enough to move from Rostov in the direction of the Caucasus and observe how, at the stations, clean Caucasian faces with their large, straight features stand out from the number of vague Russian physiognomies. As for the physique, I noticed that among the Armenians, Eastern Georgians, Khevsurs and Dagestanis, people of average height and strong physique are mostly common, more often stocky than slender, but by no means tall; partly the growth is very small, for example, in some regions of Dagestan (Kazikumukh, Gumbet). Compared to them, the Chechens are striking because of their height. It is enough to move from the last Khevsurian settlement of Shatil to the Kistin Dzharego and be amazed at the abrupt anthropological change: among the Khevsurians there are stocky, broad figures, among the Khevsurs they are tall, slender, I would even say elegant in appearance. This observation of mine was also confirmed by the reports of Radde (see list of used literature, no. 36). I noted the same difference between the Ichkerians on the one hand and the Andians and Avars, on the other hand, especially the Gumbets. Slenderness sometimes seems excessive. In other places, such figures would probably be called frail. In vain! Since the shoulders are usually wide, only the hips are narrow. Because of this, the body gets an unusually firm, elastic, sometimes a little casual look. The completeness that I have observed among Armenians and Eastern Georgians, both among men and women, especially in old age, is almost completely absent; harmony and thinness are widespread. (...) People with pure black hair, very dark eyes, like Armenians and partly Georgians, are not often found among the Chechens, in any case, there is no such thing that both signs coincide. Therefore, we can only talk about the anthropological type, which is generally dark. Most often, the hair of the head is dark (and also black), while the eyes opposite are brown or a color that is difficult to describe with accuracy. It can probably be called light-colored, with a slight admixture of green. I have seen clear, translucent light brown eyes more often in women than in men. But what first of all catches the eye of the traveler is a large number of blondes and light-eyed, mostly the latter of those listed. It is difficult to say which tone predominates: both gray and gray-green eyes are widespread, and pure blue, sky-blue eyes are also common, which could not have been clearer in Northern Germany. Somewhat less often light eyes are blonde hair. But here the reason is a very strong gradual darkening. There are significantly more blond children than adults, and dark-haired adults assured me that they had blond hair in childhood. The color shade of the blonde is perhaps less consistent with the dull blonde of the eastern race, and more similar to the blonde of the northern race, tending to golden, although I did not observe golden in its pure form. I also saw redheads many times; the color of their eyes was light brown. More often than blonde hair, there are light beards, and I remember the brown-red tone, as well as in men with dark hair and brown eyes. Beards are plentiful and even, and are worn with a certain degree of care. In men, the face is reddened by the wind and bad weather, and not swarthy, a circumstance especially characteristic of the Nordic race. The body is white in the best sense. For a more accessible description of the Chechen blond, I want to compare him with light northern Europeans. S. Paudler, in his work on light races, clearly distinguished between the Dal Cro-Magnon race and the usual dolichocephalic (i.e. long-headed) light representatives of the northern race. Of these two races, only the latter is suitable for comparison. Light-colored Caucasians are similar to her because of the smoother and more even lines, fuller lips and more rounded eye cuts. Hard, rough facial features, which for example are often found among the inhabitants of Westphalia (region in Germany), are absent judging by my observations. Not to mention the extreme Dahl anthropological types from Scandinavia published by Paudler. As far as I know, they are not found among other Caucasian peoples. Comparison with the light Northwest European dolichocephalus is permissible only in relation to the color and shape of the face. In the structure of the skull, Chechen blondes do not differ from their brunet compatriots. (...) The part of the Chechens belonging to the eastern race, to which the Russians basically belong, seems to me insignificant. I also did not notice any obvious Mongolian racial characteristics."". Die Tschetschenen.
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Sources[edit]

  • Amjad Jaimoukha, The Chechens: A Handbook (London, New York: Routledge, 2005)
  • Lechi Ilyasov, The Diversity of the Chechen Culture: From Historical Roots to the Present (Moscow, 2009)
  • John B. Dunlop, Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 1998)

External links[edit]

  • Media related to Chechen people at Wikimedia Commons