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70-437: A teip (also taip , tayp , teyp ; Chechen and Ingush : тайпа, romanized: taypa [ˈtajpə] , lit. family , kin , clan , tribe ) is a Chechen and Ingush tribal organization or clan , self-identified through descent from a common ancestor or geographic location. It is a sub-unit of the tukkhum and shahar . There are about 150 Chechen and 120 Ingush teips. Teips played an important role in

140-527: A 2021 Rosstat study Chechnya ranked as the tallest region in Russia for men (179.1 cm) and second tallest for women (168.2), similar to that of Lithuania and Poland . 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

210-529: 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. In the aftermath, large numbers of refugees also emigrated or were forcibly deported to

280-517: A closer relationship of the Caucasus with Europe (Nasidze et al. 2001), while the Y chromosome indicated a closer relationship with West Asia (Nasidze et al. 2003). 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

350-539: A destructive chaos in the orderliness of the Chechen ethnic systems, removing dozens of Chechen teips (clans) from structural organization of the Chechen people. According to Mamakaev there were 9 tukkhums: However, this has been heavily criticized as some of the tukkhums mentioned were, in fact, nothing more than large teips , with several "gar" (sub-clans). Teips such as Mälkhi and Terloy for example are traditionally two teips, consisting of several "gar". These teips have all

420-474: A kinship to other peoples in some tests. Balanovsky's study showed the Ingush to be the Chechens' closest relatives by far. Russian military historian and Lieutenant General Vasily Potto describes the appearance of the Chechens as follows: "The Chechen is handsome and strong. Tall, brunette, slender, with sharp features and a quick, determined look, he amazes with his mobility, agility, dexterity." According to

490-761: A long tradition among the Chechens, and thus it remains the most practiced. 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 Naqshbandiyya and the Qadiriyya (the Naqshbandiyya is particularly strong in Dagestan and eastern Chechnya, whereas the Qadiriyya has most of its adherents in

560-617: A significant power in the region in the first millennium BC. 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). According to a legend, Adermalkh , chief of the Malkh state, married the daughter of the Bosporan king in 480 BCE. Malkhi

630-467: Is a list of teips with the Chechen tukkhum to which it may belong. As well as a list of teips included in the ethno-territorial Ingush societies Shahar Chechens The North Caucasus has been invaded numerous times throughout history. 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

700-451: Is a term and system introduced in the 1960s, most notably by Soviet Chechen writer Magomet Mamakaev in 1962. This system does not properly apply to the Chechen nation and the social structure of Chechen clans. Mamakaev proposed that the Chechen tukkhum was a type of military-economic union between certain groups of teips , not through consanguinity but established for specific purposes, such as military alliances and economic trade; that

770-526: Is almost always one to two auls with between 200 and 1,000 members. The tukhum and the aul have been the basis for Sufi Tariqa to entrench themselves in Dagestani society – rather than seeking to replace these older systems, the Tariqa exists alongside them and acts as a unifying feature. This entrenchment of the tariqa into the system of tukhums and auls created a regional variant of Sufism called Tariqatism. In contrast, Salafism and Wahhabism, which have entered

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840-399: Is also true of many other North Caucasian peoples, traditionally, Chechen and Ingush men were expected to know the names and places of origin of ancestors on their father's side, going back many generations, with the most common number being considered 7. Many women also memorized this information, and keener individuals can often recite their maternal ancestral line as well. The memorization of

910-612: Is an exoethnonym that entered the Georgian and Western European ethnonymic tradition through the Russian language in the 18th century. From the middle of the 19th century to the first few years of the Soviet state , some researchers united all Chechens and Ingush under the name "Chechens". In modern science, another term is used for this community — "the Vainakh people ". Although Chechan (Chechen)

980-431: 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 . Traditionally, linguists attributed both Ingush and Batsbi to

1050-529: 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 be descended from the original settlers of the Caucasus (North and/or South). Ancestors of the modern Chechens and Ingush were known as Durdzuks . According to The Georgian Chronicles , before his death, Targamos [Togarmah] divided

1120-484: Is known about Alarodians except that they "were armed like the Colchians and Saspeires ," according to Herodotus . Colchians and Saspeires are generally associated with Kartvelians or Scythians . Additionally, leading Urartologist Paul Zimansky rejected a connection between Urartians and Alarodians. Genetic tests on Chechens have shown roots mostly in the Caucasus and Europe. Studies on North Caucasian mtDNA indicated

1190-540: Is largely egalitarian and organized around tribal autonomous local clans, called teips , informally organized into loose confederations called tukkhums . 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"). The name Chechen occurs in Russian sources in

1260-480: Is not found in any other report, however, the Russian historian A. I. Krasnov connected this battle with two Chechen folktales he recorded in 1967 that spoke of an old hunter named Idig who with his companions defended the Dakuoh mountain for 12 years against Tatar-Mongols. He also reported to have found several arrowheads and spears from the 13th century near the very mountain the battle took place at: The next year, with

1330-897: 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. 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 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

1400-552: Is one of the Chechen tukkhums . During 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 14th century, Islam gradually spread among the Chechens, although the Chechens' own pagan religion

1470-600: Is structured around tukkhums (unions of clans ) and about 130 teips , 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 and customary law ( adat ) implies moral and ethical behaviour, generosity and

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1540-449: The gar , and the neqe . The neqe consists of households sharing the same family name, while the gar is a number of neqe units that together form a common lineage, however that is not always the case. The basic social unit, meanwhile, was the household, consisting of the extended family spanning three or four generations, referred to as the ts' a or the dözal , with married daughters usually living with in

1610-691: The Caucasus War , which led to the annexation of Chechnya by the Russian Empire in 1859, and the forcible transfer of Chechens from Terek Oblast to the Ottoman Empire in 1865. 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

1680-544: The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria . The term is of foreign origin and some suggest that it comes from the old Persian word "tauhma" which meant kin or tribe. Tukkhum is a term often used by North Caucasians for a tribe or family, and is found among the Dagestani peoples such as Avars , Tabasarans , Kumyks , and Lezghins . The term is used to describe different clan structures for different ethnicities and does not mean

1750-541: The Chechen language . The famous 19th century historian Bashir Dalgat who studied extensively the Chechen and Ingush peoples, noted that the term "tukkhum" was completely foreign to most Chechens as it was only used by some societies in the lowlands. According to him, most Chechens only referred to their teip (especially in the highlands) and never knew of or used the term "tukkhum". Several Chechen historians and Linguists such as A. Tesaev and N. N. Albekov have criticized

1820-561: The Itum-Kale region of Chechnya. Georgian historian Giorgi 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. The state of Durdzuketi has been known since the 4th century BC. The Armenian Chronicles mention that the Durdzuks defeated Scythians and became

1890-485: 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. 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

1960-561: The Alans had successfully resisted a Mongol siege on a mountain for 12 years: When they (the Mongols) begin to besiege a fortress, they besiege it for many years, as it happens today with one mountain in the land of the Alans. We believe they have been besieging it for twelve years and they (the Alans) put up courageous resistance and killed many Tatars, including many noble ones. This twelve-year-old siege

2030-456: The Chechen language (as its dialects) before the endoethnonym Vainakh appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. 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. In 1989, 73.4% spoke Russian, though this figure has declined due to

2100-980: The Chechen people. Chechen manuscripts in Arabic from the early 1820s do mention a certain Nakhchuvan (near modern-day Kağızman , 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'). 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 . Outside Russia, countries with significant diaspora populations are Kazakhstan , Turkey and Arab states (especially Jordan and Iraq ). Those in Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan are mainly descendants of families who had to leave Chechnya during

2170-605: The Chechen tukkhum, which is considered as being superior to the teip, the Dagestani tukhum is almost always a subdivision of the village community, known as the aul , which is made up of one village. There are constituent organs to the aul, namely the Jamaat, or Village Council, and the Council of Elders. These too differ in size from group to group. The Avar village community usually consists of one or two auls, with more being unusual but not unheard of. The Dargin village community, meanwhile,

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2240-632: The Mehk-Khel (National Council). The Mehk-Khel 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. One such battle

2310-460: The Mongol-Tatars treacherously killed the majority, and the rest were taken into slavery. This fate was escaped only by Idig and a few of his companions who did not trust the nomads and remained on the mountain. They managed to escape and leave Mount Dakuoh after 12 years of siege. Tamerlane's late 14th-century invasions of the Caucasus were especially costly to the Chechen kingdom of Simsir which

2380-619: The Ottoman Empire. 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

2450-581: 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. Chechnya is predominantly Sunni Muslim . Most of the population follows either the Shafi'i or the Hanafi schools of jurisprudence, fiqh . The Shafi'i school has

2520-598: The Urarto-Hurrians. Other scholars, however, doubt that the language families are related, or believe that, while a connection is possible, the evidence is far from conclusive. Uralicist and Indo-Europeanist Petri Kallio argues that the matter is hindered by the lack of consensus about how to reconstruct Proto-Northeast-Caucasian, but that Alarodian is the most promising proposal for relations with Northeast Caucasian, greater than rival proposals to link it with Northwest Caucasian or other families. However, nothing

2590-539: 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

2660-460: The bulk of the Caucasus, namely Eastern Georgia, Southern Dagestan , Azerbaijan , and Armenia . 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 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

2730-548: The characteristics of a Chechen teip. Mamakaev incorrectly wrote down these large teips as "tukkhum" and their gars as teips under this tukkhum, even though they were never teips, but merely branches of that specific teip. The tukhum is a prominent social grouping among the Dagestani highlanders. The etymology is considered to be the same as described above. The tukhum is found in Avar, Dargin , Lezgin and Lak societies, among others. There are, however, differences from group to group in

2800-536: The city Nakhchivan and the nation of Nakhchamatyan (mentioned as one of the peoples of Sarmatia in the 7th-century Armenian work Ashkharhatsuyts ) by many Soviet and modern historians, although the historian N. Volkova considers the latter connection unlikely and states that the term Nakhchmatyan could have been mistaken for the Iaxamatae , a tribe of Sarmatia mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography , who have no connection to

2870-535: The clan cemetery, tower, and sanctuary. Land being scarce in mountainous Ingushetia and Chechnya, after the feudal system was overthrown, each teip claimed a definite area of land. Land boundaries were marked by stones with specific marks pointing to a local place of worship. While at first land was owned collectively, individual cultivation ultimately became the norm. In old Chechen and Ingush tradition, women were allowed to own land. The vehement Ingush and Chechen opposition to Soviet collectivization has been explained by

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2940-483: 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. Among the Chechen teips, the teip Zurzakoy , consonant with the ethnonym Dzurdzuk, live in

3010-430: 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 affection for nature. According to Chechen philosopher Apty Bisultanov, ruining an ant-hill or hunting Caucasian goats during their mating season

3080-638: 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. Chechens are accustomed to democratic ways, their social structure being firmly based on equality, pluralism and deference to individuality. Chechen society

3150-523: The first military encounter between Imperial Russia and the Chechens. Sheikh Mansur led a major Chechen resistance movement in the late 18th 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". Angered by Chechen raids, Yermolov resorted to

3220-408: The household of their spouse. Brothers would share the same land and livestock. The number of teips has been unstable in recent history. While there were 59 Chechen and Ingush teips in the early 19th century, this swelled to a hundred by the mid-19th century, and today there are about 170. New teips could be founded when a large gar broke off and claimed the title of a full-fledged teip. Below

3290-401: The information serves as a way to impute clan loyalty to younger generations. Among peoples of the Caucasus , traditionally, large scale land disputes could sometimes be solved with the help of mutual knowledge of whose ancestors resided where and when. A teip's ancestral land was thus held as sacred, because of its close link to teip identity. It was typically marked by clan symbols, including

3360-696: The languages of the Avars , Dargins , Lezghins , Laks , Rutulians , 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 . Some researchers suggest a linguistic relationship between the Nakhsk-Dagestani languages and

3430-583: The late 16th century as "Chachana", which is mentioned as a land owned by the Chechen Prince Shikh Murza. 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 contemporary central Chechnya. The name "Chechens"

3500-713: The mitochondrial DNA is very diverse. The most recent study on Chechens, by Balanovsky et al. in 2011, 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% ), which is associated with Mediterranean , Caucasian and Fertile Crescent populations. Other notable values were found among North Caucasian Turkic peoples ( Kumyks (25%) and Balkars (24%) ). It

3570-486: The objects of both official and unofficial discrimination and discriminatory public discourse. 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. The main language of the Chechen people is Chechen . Chechen belongs to the family of Nakh languages ( Northeast Caucasian languages ). Literary Chechen

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3640-416: The onset of summer, the enemy hordes came again to destroy the highlanders. But even this year they failed to capture the mountain, on which the brave Chechens settled down. The battle lasted twelve years. The main wealth of the Chechens – livestock – was stolen by the enemies. Tired of the long years of hard struggle, the Chechens, believing the assurances of mercy by the enemy, descended from the mountain, but

3710-462: The reach of the term among the different groups. In Avar and Dargin society, the tukhum contains 200-300 members, though Dargin society has the added layer of the Jin, a smaller extended family. Within a tukhum, endogamy is practiced, vendettas are observed and there is a strong feeling of kinship. These inter-tukhum relations were managed by Adat , customary laws among the various peoples. As opposed to

3780-580: The republic, with the government and the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of the Chechen Republic actively promoting and enforcing their own version of a so-called "traditional Islam", including introducing elements of Sharia that replaced Russian official laws. Tukkhum Tukkhum ( Chechen : Тукхам , romanized:  Tuqam ; from Old Persian : tau ( h ) ma )

3850-416: 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. A stereotype of an average Chechen being a fundamentalist Muslim is incorrect and misleading. By the late 2000s, however, two new trends have emerged in Chechnya. A radicalized remnant of

3920-675: The result of the recent Chechen Wars , especially in the wave of emigration to the West after 2002. The Chechens are one of the Nakh peoples , who have lived in the highlands of the North Caucasus region since prehistory. There is archeological evidence of historical continuity dating back to 3000 B.C. as well as evidence pointing to their ancestors' migration from the Fertile Crescent c. 10,000–8,000 B.C. The discussion of their origins

3990-469: The same thing from one ethnicity to the other. To the Chechens, it was introduced by Mamakaev in 1962 and it has been used in Chechen historical studies ever since. It is noted by the Caucasiologist Kharadze in 1968, that Mamakaev is the basis for the Chechen use of tukkhum to make the social structure of the Chechens more complex and interesting, despite the meaning of tukkhum not being clear in

4060-612: The shaping of the Chechen nationhood and their martial-oriented and clan-based society. The Caucasus was a major competing area for two neighboring rival empires: the Ottoman and Turco-Persian empires ( Safavids , Afsharids , Qajars ). Starting from 1555 and decisively 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

4130-431: The socioeconomic life of the Chechen and Ingush peoples before and during the Middle Ages , and continue to be an important cultural part to this day. Common teip rules and some features include: Teips being sub-units of tukkhums, members of the same teip are traditionally thought to descend from a common ancestor, and thus are considered distant blood relatives. Teip names were often derived from an ancestral founder. As

4200-477: The spiritual life of Dagestanis since the fall of the Soviet Union, have gained popularity in that they allow one freedom from this very system and a different sense of belonging. While there is a version of the tukhum in Lezgin society, it requires elaboration. The Lezgin version of the tukhum has all but vanished. While the aul was, like the Avar and Dargin auls, the basis of Lezgin society in pre-revolutionary times,

4270-429: The term "tukkhum" and its implementation by Mamakaev. Albekov especially considers the term destructive to the Chechen nation: Numerous studies carried out by us in the field of ethnology, history, folklore, systematology, leave no doubt that the term "tukkhum" not only was and is not part of the Chechen ethnos, but also directly contradicts the systemic structure of the Chechen people. The concept of "tukkhum" introduces

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4340-404: The threat it posed to the traditional customs of land allotment. Each teip had an elected council of elders, a court of justice, and its own set of customs. The civilian chief, referred to as the thamda or kh'alkhancha , chaired the council of elders. The baechcha , meanwhile, was the military leader. The teip has its own subdivisions, in order of their progressive nesting, the vaer ,

4410-464: The tukkhum occupied a specific territory, which was inhabited by the members of the tukkhum. He also stated that each tukkhum spoke a different dialect of the same Vainakh language . Despite this, it is still a relatively important social grouping, as seen through various Chechen authors and scholars using it in their descriptions of the Vainakh social structure, as well as its feature on the coat of arms of

4480-465: 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

4550-426: 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". Chechens have a strong sense of community, which is enforced by the old clan network and nokhchalla – the obligation to clan, tukkhum, etc. This is often combined with old values transmuted into a modern sense. They are mythically descended from

4620-500: 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 Cyril Donauri, who mentions the 'People of Nakhche' among Tushetians , Avars and many other Northeast Caucasian nations. The term Nakhchiy has also been connected to

4690-623: Was an ally of the Golden Horde and anti-Timurid. Its leader Khour Ela supported Khan Tokhtamysh during the Battle of the Terek River . 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 states were utterly destroyed. These events were key in

4760-405: Was considered extremely sinful. The glasnost era Chechen independence movement Bart (unity) originated as a simple environmentalist organization in the republic's capital of Grozny. Chechen culture strongly values freedom. This asserts itself in multiple ways. A large majority of the nation's national heroes fought for independence (or otherwise, like the legendary Zelimkhan , robbed from

4830-399: 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. The Mongol invasions are well known in Chechen folktales which are often connected with military reports of Alan-Dzurdzuk wars against the Mongols. According to the missionary Pian de Carpine , a part of

4900-402: Was the Battle of Khachara between Gheza and the rival Avar Khanate that tried to exert influence on Chechnya. 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 , in which Russia succeeded in taking much of the Caucasian territories for several years. The conflict notably marked

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