After the August events of 1991, known as the Patch GKChP, the situation in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic in the North Caucasus was completely out of control. On September 6, Dzhokhar Dudaev, a former general of the USSR Air Force, announced the dissolution of all power structures of the republic, that is, he actually made a coup.
Instruction manual
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The leadership of the RSFSR in this situation acted indecisively and inconsistently. The decree on the introduction of a state of emergency, issued on November 7, was canceled a few days later, military units and units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began to withdraw from the republic. Chechen separatists have seized many weapons depots. As a result, Chechnya, becoming virtually independent, has become a real hotbed of banditry. Trains passing through the territory of the republic were subjected to constant raids with casualties. The criminal business of taking hostages with a ransom demand flourished in Chechnya.
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All this forced the Russian leadership to take measures to restore order. On December 11, 1994, a group consisting of parts of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of the Interior entered Chechnya. Thus began the First Chechen War.
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Quickly occupying the northern regions of the republic, the troops launched an assault on Grozny. Poorly trained and not having combat experience, they suffered heavy losses. The Maikop motorized rifle brigade was especially hard hit - according to official figures, 85 people died, 72 went missing, and more than 100 were captured by the separatists.
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Only in early March 1995, Grozny completely came under the control of federal forces. Fighting began for the village of Bamut - the stronghold of the separatists. After making sure that they could not resist the federal forces, Chechen fighters relied on sabotage and terrorist acts. A tragedy occurred in the city of Budennovsk, where a detachment of militants led by the infamous Basayev captured the hospital. After that, a moratorium on hostilities was declared. Nevertheless, individual battles and terrorist acts (for example, the raid of Raduyev’s fighters on the city of Kizlyar) continued. On April 21, 1996, as a result of a special operation, Dzhokhar Dudayev was liquidated. In August of the same year, after regular battles for Grozny, the Khasavyurt agreements were concluded, according to which Russian troops were withdrawn from Chechnya, and the question of the status of the republic was postponed until 2001.
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Alas, this led only to a real bacchanalia with hostage taking in Chechnya. In addition, the republic was literally flooded with Arab mercenaries and emissaries, representing the interests of radical fanatical religious communities. As a result, in the summer of 1999 there was an invasion of large militant forces under the leadership of the same Basayev in neighboring Dagestan, which led to the outbreak of the Second Chechen War.
