HISTORY IN THE NEWS:
DEDICATED TO THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD.
The North Caucasus- Timeline for Chechnya, Dagestan, Ossetia
(See separate postings for Georgia in the South Caucasus).
(SCROLL DOWN FOR THE WHOLE TIMELINE OF THE CAUCASUS)
Were the Boston Bombing suspects, Tamerlan and DzhokharTsarnaev fighting their own war- or were they carrying on a war recently waged by Chechen Islamists and separatists? They are ethnic Chechens who have lived most of their lives in the United States as outwardly average Americans.
Where did their troubles start?
1813- Russo Persian War ends with Peace of Gulistan: Persia cedes much of the eastern Caucasus including Dagestan and Shemakha to Russia.
Russia moves into the Caucasus.
-Chechens convert to Sunni Islam in hope of gaining protection Ottoman protection from Russia.
-1820-1864- Russia gradually absorbs the north Causacus.
Chances are that the Tsarnaev brothers knew a lot about this man- where it all started:
The Warlord Shamil
1830-1859- the Imam Shamil "the Avar" (1797-1871) an east Caucasus Muslim warlord and chief the Lesghians (in modern day Chechnya and Dagestan) declares Jihad against Russia and resists a thirty year campaign of Russian military conquest.
1831-1832- Russia quells a Dagestan uprising.
1831- Shamil escapes Russian imprisonment at Himry.
1834-1858 Imam Shamil rules over a self-proclaimed imamat (Chechnya). He unites part of the North Caucasian highlanders in their struggle against tsarist Russia and sets up a theocratic sharia state known as imamat that resisted Tsarist Russia for 27 years.
1839. Shamil escapes Russian imprisonment at Ashulgo
1839- Shamil retreats from Russians and consolidates his position in Akhulgo, Dagestan.
1849- Shamil escapes again from Russian imprisonment at Ashulgo.
1859- Sept. 6- Shamil forced to surrender to Russians at Gunib in central Dagestan.
Al Qaeda
-Chechen "ties to Al Qaeda began in 1992, when al Qaeda and its brother organization, the Haqqani Network, created the Furqan (a chapter in the Koran meaning "the criterion") Project, a training program for jihadists from the former Soviet Central Asian republics and the Caucasus Mountains." (CBS News)
TIMELINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS: CHECHNYA, DAGESTAN AND OTHER REGIONS OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS.
-some material on Dagestan from- http://www.learner.org/workshops/geography/workshop6/wkp6time.htm
-most material for Chechnya after 1922 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/2357267.stm
-also: http://timelines.ws/countries/CHECHNYA.HTML
"Caucasus" is derived from the Persian word for "glittering ice"
-the Caucasus is the mountainous region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
-it constitutes the most contested boundary between Russia and the Middle East.
-the north Caucasus forms the highest, and historically the most impenetrable, parts of the Caucasus mountain range
Ancient Greece
-the Caucasus is frequently featured in ancient Greek myths and legends; it was there that Promethus suffered, chained to a rock; it where the Argonauts sought the Golden Fleece.
650 BC (circa) the Greek colony of Dioscurus flourishes on the eastern coast of the Black sea,
Migrations
250 AD (circa)- 1240AD "For more than a thousand years the mountain fastness of this borderland between Europe and Asia were the refuge or the resting place of successive waves of migration, as people after people and tribe after tribe was compelled to give way..." Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed.
550 AD- the Huns and the Avars pass through the region.
660 AD- Islam arrives just south of Tiflis in central Caucasus. Conquers but fails to convert the region.
The Khazars
800-1242- Kazaria/Khazar Empire includes the north Caucasus.
900 AD (circa)- Caucasus converted to Christianity.
The Mongol Conquest.
1220- Mongol conquest of the Caucasus.
1466- The Caspian Sea Khanate of Astrakhan emerges with the disintegration of the Mongol Golden Horde.
The Ottomans and Russia
1550- (circa) Karabakh (Georgia) in the south Caucasus and Dagesrtan in the east, on the Caspian sea are states dependent on the Ottoman Sultan.
1566- The Khanate of Astrakhan is dissolved under Ivan IV ("the Terrible") as Russia expands. This predominantly Islamic, ethnically diverse region, which includes part of present-day Dagestan, is incorporated into Russia
-Imeriti on the Black Sea in the west Caucascus is a tributary state to the Ottoman Sultan.
Russia, the Ottomans and Persia
1722- Russia, under Peter the Great, annexes Dagestan and its Black Sea port of Derbent, from Persia.
1723- Russia takes Baku.
1723- Dagestan a tributary state to the Ottomans.
1745- Derbent and Baku restored to Persia,
1774, 1784- Russia expands further into the Caucasus.
1802-1806- Russia conquers Ossetia.
The Russo-Persian War.
1804-1813- Russo Persian War
1811- Russia takes Imeritia
1810- Russia takes Ankazia.
1813- Russo Persian War ends with Peace of Gulistan: Persia cedes much of the eastern Caucasus including Dagestan and Shemakha to Russia.
Russia moves into the Caucasus.
-Chechens convert to Sunni Islam in hope of gaining protection Ottoman protection from Russia.
1820-1864- Russia gradually absorbs the north Causacus.
1826- the Convention of Akkerman: Dagestan and Grozny (Chechnya) officially ceded to Russia by the Ottomans.
1828-1829- Russia acquires territory in Dagetsan on the Caspian sea coast from Persia and from the Ottomans.
The Warlord Shamil
1830-1859- the Imam Shamil "the Avar" (1797-1871) an east Caucasus Muslim warlord and chief the Lesghians (in modern day Chechnya and Dagestan) declares Jihad against Russia and resists a thirty year campaign of Russian military conquest.
1831-1832- Russia quells a Dagestan uprising.
1831- Shamil escapes Russian imprisonment at Himry.
1834-1858 Imam Shamil rules over a self-proclaimed imamat (Chechnya). He unites part of the North Caucasian highlanders in their struggle against tsarist Russia and sets up a theocratic sharia state known as imamat that resisted Tsarist Russia for 27 years.
1839. Shamil escapes Russian imprisonment at Ashulgo
1839- Shamil retreats from Russians and consolidates his position in Akhulgo, Dagestan.
1849- Shamil escapes again from Russian imprisonment at Ashulgo.
1859- Sept. 6- Shamil forced to surrender to Russians at Gunib in central Dagestan.
Russian Conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan.
1859- Russia takes Chechnya.
1864- Russia takes Cherkessia in the west, on the northeast coast of the Black Sea.
-population of western Caucauses is depleted by out-migration to Turkey.
Russo-Turkish War.
1877-1878- Russo-Turkish War- the Turks try unsuccessfully to restore the west Caucasus to the original tribes.
1878- brief uprising by the Dagestan Lesghians is crushed by Russia.
1899- about half of present-day Chechnya is part of Dagestan.
Caucasian Civil War.
1903-1905- entire region is consumed in civil war along ethnic and religious lines.
1915- Turkey begins the massacre of the Armenians in the south Caucasus.
1921- The Soviet Union establishes the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Soviet Chechen Autonomous Region.
1922 - Chechen autonomous region established by Bolsheviks; becomes the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1934.
1936- The Chechen-Ingush ASSR is established, leading to the modern-day Chechnya or Chechen Republic.
1944- During World War II, Chechens are falsely accused of collaborating with the invading Nazis. The Checheno-Ingush ASSR was abolished until 1958. Stalin deports the entire Chechen nation to Kazakhstan. Many tens of thousands of people die en-route or in camps. Mosques in Chechnya are destroyed.. Soviet dictator Stalin deports the entire Chechen and Ingush populations to Siberia and Central Asia, citing alleged collaboration with Nazi Germany. Many thousands die in the process.
Soviet Rehabilitation of Chechens.
1957- Feb 11- Soviet Union rehabilitates Chechens and Ingush who had been exiled to Kazakhstan during World War II.
- Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev restores the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Khrushchev permits Chechen exiles to return. However, the survivors could not resettle in their traditional mountain villages, but rather had to live in the lowlands under Russian control.
Collapse of the Soviet Union; Chechnya declares independence.
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union. Chechen Communist leader Doku Zavgayev overthrown; Dzhokhar Dudayev wins a presidential poll and proclaims Chechnya independent of Russia.
1991- Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudaev declares independence of Chechnya from Russia.
1992 - Chechnya adopts a constitution defining it as an independent, secular state governed by a president and parliament.
-Chechen "ties to al Qaeda began in 1992, when al Qaeda and its brother organization, the Haqqani Network, created the Furqan (a chapter in the Koran meaning "the criterion") Project, a training program for jihadists from the former Soviet Central Asian republics and the Caucasus Mountains." (CBS News)
THE FIRST CHECHEN WAR.
Russia Attempts re-conquest of Chechnya.
1994 December - Russian troops enter Chechnya to quash the independence movement. Up to 100,000 people - many of them civilians - are estimated to have been killed in the 20-month war that followed.
1995- Chechnya at war with Russia.
1995 June - Chechen rebels seize hundreds of hostages at a hospital in Budennovsk, southern Russia. More than 100 are killed in the raid and in an unsuccessful Russian commando operation.
Chechen leader Dudayev killed.
1996 April - Dudayev killed in a Russian missile attack; Zemlikhan Yandarbiyev succeeds him.
1996 May - Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Yandarbiyev sign a peace agreement; the short-lived truce lasts until July.
Ceasefire, Russian Troop Withdrawal and Peace Treaty.
1996 August - Chechen rebels launch a successful attack on Grozny; Yeltsin's security chief General Alexander Lebed and Chechen rebel chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov sign the Khasavyurt Accords
which provide for a ceasefire. An agreement on Russian troop withdrawals is signed in November.
Rebel chief Aslan Maskhadov recognized as president of Chechnya.
1997 January - Russia recognises Maskhadov's government following his victory in Chechen presidential elections.
1997 May - Yeltsin and Maskhadov sign a formal peace treaty, but the issue of Chechen independence is not resolved.
The North Caucasus circa 1998.
-Constituent Republics within the Russian federation (not directly ruled from Moscow) are: Dagestan, Inguteshia, North Ossetia, Kabardino Balkaria, and Karachey Cherkessia.
-Chechnya in a state of de facto autonomy.
Kidnappings by Chechen Rebels.
1998 May - Valentin Vlasov, Russia's presidential representative in Chechnya, is kidnapped and held for six months. Later in the year, four engineers from Britain and New Zealand are kidnapped and murdered.
1998 June - Amid growing lawlessness, Maskhadov imposes a state of emergency.
Maskhadov declares Sharia Law.
1999 January/February - Maskhadov declares Islamic Shari'ah law will be phased in over three years.
A group of former rebel field commanders announces the formation of a rival body to govern Chechnya according to Shari'ah law and calls on Aslan Maskhadov to relinquish the presidency.
1999 March - Moscow's top envoy to Chechnya, General Gennadiy Shpigun, is kidnapped from the airport in Grozny. His corpse is found in Chechnya in March 2000.
Chechen Islamists Invade Dagestan; Russia invades Chechnya.
- Chechen Islamist militants led by warlords Ibn Al Khattab and Shamil Basayev launch two invasions of neighboring Dagestan "with the aim of creating an 'independent Islamic State of Dagestan'. Although Basayev and Khattab expected that they would be welcomed as liberators, the Dagestanis instead see them as occupiers and unwelcome religious fanatics. The initial resistance against the invasion is provided by the Dagestani police, spontaneous militias and villagers.Once Russian military help arrives, the invaders were beaten and driven back to Chechnya. As a retaliation, Russian forces subsequently. (Wikipedia)
-Russian forces respond by invading Chechnya again. Skirmishes continue.
1999 July/August - Chechen fighters clash with Russian troops on the Chechnya-Dagestan border; Chechen rebels stage armed incursions into Dagestan in an attempt to create an Islamic state.
1999 Aug 7, Islamic fighters based in Chechnya seize two village in Dagestan. Warlords Shamil Basayev and Wahabbi commander Amir Khattab (Hattab) are reported to be involved. This triggers the second Chechen war.
THE SECOND CHECHEN WAR.
Chechens take the war inside Russia.
1999 September - A bomb attack on Russian military housing in Dagestan and a series of apartment block bombings elsewhere in Russia are blamed on Chechen rebels; some 300 people are killed in the blasts. Russian forces redeploy in Chechnya; the new prime minister, Vladimir Putin, says the campaign is needed to quash terrorism.
Russian Prime Minister Putin Swears to Crush Terrorism. Russia Captures Grozny
1999 October - Moscow-based State Council of the Republic of Chechnya established by former members of the Chechen republican legislature. Moscow recognizes it as the sole legitimate Chechen authority and refuses to negotiate with Maskhadov.
2000 February - Russian troops capture Grozny; much of the city is razed.
2000 May - President Putin declares direct rule from Moscow.
Russia appoints Akhmat Kadyrovm to head Chechnya. War continues.
2000 June - Russia appoints former Chechen cleric Akhmat Kadyrov as head of its administration in Chechnya.
2001 - Human rights organizations express concern about human rights violations in Chechnya, including alleged torture and widespread detentions at the hands of Russian troops. Concerns are fueled by the discovery of a mass grave filled with mutilated bodies.
2001 September - Major rebel offensive on the Chechen
town of Gudermes; a Russian helicopter carrying senior officers is
downed.
2001 September - In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks on the US, Putin urges rebels to "halt all contacts with international terrorists".
New Talks between Russia and Chechnya. Maskhadov leads separatists.
2001 November - First official negotiations since 1999 as Maskhadov's representative Akhmed Zakayev and Russia's Kazantsev hold talks on a peace settlement in Moscow.
2001 December - Captured rebel field commander Salman Raduyev sentenced to life imprisonment on murder, terrorism charges. He dies in a Russian jail in December 2002.
2002 July - UN suspends aid operations in Chechnya for six months after a Russian aid worker is kidnapped.
2002 August - Georgia accuses Russia of carrying out air raids in the Pankisi gorge, close to Georgia's border with Chechnya. Moscow says the gorge is a safe haven for Chechen rebel groups and presses for an international operation to flush them out.
Chechen Terror Operations in Moscow Theatre and in Grozny.
2002 October - Chechen rebels seize a Moscow theatre and hold about 800 people hostage. Most of the rebels and some 120 hostages are killed when Russian forces storm the building.
2002 December - Suicide bomb attack on the Grozny base of the Russian-backed Chechen government kills around 80 people. Rebels claim responsibility.
Referendum for new Chechen Constitution. Suicide Attacks Continue.
2003 March - Russians hail Chechen referendum vote in favour
of a new constitution stipulating that the republic is part of the
Russian Federation. Human rights groups, among others, criticise Russia
for pushing ahead with vote before peace has been established.
2003 May - Over 50 people killed in suicide bombing of government building in the north of the republic. Two days later administration chief Kadyrov has narrow escape in another suicide attack which leaves more than a dozen dead.
Kadyrov elected president of Chechnya. Russian Offensive in Dagestan.
2003 October - Akhmad Kadyrov elected president.
2003 December - Russian forces kill about a dozen Chechen fighters after band of rebels crosses border into neighbouring Dagestan and takes hostages.
2004 February - Former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev killed in explosion in Qatar, where he had been living for three years. Two Russian intelligence agents subsequently sentenced to life in jail by a Qatari court for the killing.
Kadyrov killed.
2004 May - President Akhmad Kadyrov and many others killed in Grozny bomb blast.
2004 June - Dozens killed in neighbouring Ingushetia in attacks reported to have involved hundreds of gunmen. President Putin blames Chechen rebels led by Aslan Maskhadov whose spokesman denies the latter's direct involvement but says Chechen volunteers took part.
2004 July - Acting President Abramov survives explosion.
Cechen Extremists take children hostage in North Ossetia.
2004 September - Hundreds are killed or wounded - many of them children - when a siege at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, ends in bloodbath. President Putin blames international terrorists with links to Chechen separatist fighters. Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov condemns the seizure but says it was carried out by "madmen" seeking revenge for Russian actions against their own loved ones in Chechnya
Alu Alkhanov elected president.
2004 October - Kremlin-backed former Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov sworn in as president following August elections.
2005 February - Separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov calls ceasefire and urges the Russian authorities to agree to peace talks. The official Chechen leadership dismisses his overtures and says he should give himself up.
Maskhadov killed. Russian operations continue.
2005 March - Russian forces say Aslan Maskhadov has been killed in a special operation in Chechnya.
2005 May - Mr Maskhadov's successor, Abdul-Khalim Saydullayev,
signals end to policy of seeking peace talks with Moscow and decrees
organisation of Caucasus Front in apparent bid to widen conflict with
Russia.
2005 July - About 15 people killed when armoured police vehicle blown up north of Groznyy.
Kabardino-Balkaria attacked by Chechen warlord Basayev,
2005 October - Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev says he commanded militant forces which launched major assault in Nalchik, capital of the North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Dozens die in clashes between Russian forces and rebel fighters.
New parliament
Chechen election backs Russia.
2005 November - Tight security in place for regional parliamentary elections regarded by Moscow as important for normalization but by separatist forces as a charade. More than 50% of the seats are won by Kremlin-backed United Russia.
2005 December - President Putin attends opening session of new parliament and pledges support for reconstruction.
-Dangerously high levels of radiation found at a Groznyy chemical factory reported to have been unsecured since Russia bombed it during the assault of 1999.
2006 February - 13 people are killed in an explosion at Russian military barracks near Groznyy. Officials say a gas leak was the most likely cause but do not rule out other theories.
Abramov resigns as prime minister. Kadryov replaces him.
2006 March - Ramzan Kadyrov becomes prime minister after Sergey Abramov resigns.
2006 June - Separatist leader Abdul-Khalim Saydullayev killed by government forces. He is succeeded by Doku Umarov.
Chechen warlord Basayev killed in Ingiteshia operation.
2006 July - Warlord Shamil Basayev is killed in neighbouring
Ingushetia in what Russian forces say was a special operation but
Chechen rebels say was an accidental explosion.
2006 October - Prominent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of the Kremlin's actions in Chechnya, is shot dead in Moscow.
2007 February/March - President Alu Alkhanov is moved to a post in the Russian government by Russian President Vladimir Putin who names Ramzan Kadyrov as his successor. The Chechen parliament approves his candidacy.
2007 June - A military court in southern Russia sentences four soldiers to prison terms for murdering six Chechen civilians, in a rare ruling against Russian troops.
United Russia party "wins" 99% of vote in Chechnya.
2007 December - The United Russia party, which backs Russian President Vladimir Putin, wins 99% of the vote in Chechnya in Russian parliamentary elections. Foreign observers say the election was "not fair".
2008 February - Russian President Vladimir Putin's favoured successor, Dmitry Medvedev, wins 89% of the vote in Chechnya, on a turnout of 91%.
Russia declares 'Normalization'
2009 April - Russia declares the nearly decade-old "counterterrorism operation" against separatist rebels to be over, a month after President Medvedev said life in the republic had "normalised to a large degree".
2009 July - Russian human rights activist Natalia Estemirova,
who had been investigating alleged abuses by government-backed militias
in Chechnya, is abducted and killed.
2010 February - Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov drops three libel suits against human rights activists and journalists who accused him of murder.
2010 April - Rebel leader Doku Umarov claims responsibility for deadly suicide attacks on Moscow Metro in March.
2010 August - Doku Umarov appears to announce in a YouTube video that he is retiring because of his age and names Aslambek Vadalov as his successor. Days later, he declares that his resignation statement was a "falsification" and that he is staying on.
Attack on Chechen parliament.
2010 October - Gunmen attack parliament, killing four people before being killed themselves.
2010 November - Three men go on trial in Austria accused of complicity in the murder of a former bodyguard of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who strongly denies allegations he ordered the killing.
DEDICATED TO THE ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD.
The North Caucasus- Timeline for Chechnya, Dagestan, Ossetia
(See separate postings for Georgia in the South Caucasus).
(SCROLL DOWN FOR THE WHOLE TIMELINE OF THE CAUCASUS)
Were the Boston Bombing suspects, Tamerlan and DzhokharTsarnaev fighting their own war- or were they carrying on a war recently waged by Chechen Islamists and separatists? They are ethnic Chechens who have lived most of their lives in the United States as outwardly average Americans.
Where did their troubles start?
1813- Russo Persian War ends with Peace of Gulistan: Persia cedes much of the eastern Caucasus including Dagestan and Shemakha to Russia.
Russia moves into the Caucasus.
-Chechens convert to Sunni Islam in hope of gaining protection Ottoman protection from Russia.
-1820-1864- Russia gradually absorbs the north Causacus.
Chances are that the Tsarnaev brothers knew a lot about this man- where it all started:
The Warlord Shamil
1830-1859- the Imam Shamil "the Avar" (1797-1871) an east Caucasus Muslim warlord and chief the Lesghians (in modern day Chechnya and Dagestan) declares Jihad against Russia and resists a thirty year campaign of Russian military conquest.
1831-1832- Russia quells a Dagestan uprising.
1831- Shamil escapes Russian imprisonment at Himry.
1834-1858 Imam Shamil rules over a self-proclaimed imamat (Chechnya). He unites part of the North Caucasian highlanders in their struggle against tsarist Russia and sets up a theocratic sharia state known as imamat that resisted Tsarist Russia for 27 years.
1839. Shamil escapes Russian imprisonment at Ashulgo
1839- Shamil retreats from Russians and consolidates his position in Akhulgo, Dagestan.
1849- Shamil escapes again from Russian imprisonment at Ashulgo.
1859- Sept. 6- Shamil forced to surrender to Russians at Gunib in central Dagestan.
Al Qaeda
-Chechen "ties to Al Qaeda began in 1992, when al Qaeda and its brother organization, the Haqqani Network, created the Furqan (a chapter in the Koran meaning "the criterion") Project, a training program for jihadists from the former Soviet Central Asian republics and the Caucasus Mountains." (CBS News)
TIMELINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS: CHECHNYA, DAGESTAN AND OTHER REGIONS OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS.
-some material on Dagestan from- http://www.learner.org/workshops/geography/workshop6/wkp6time.htm
-most material for Chechnya after 1922 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/2357267.stm
-also: http://timelines.ws/countries/CHECHNYA.HTML
"Caucasus" is derived from the Persian word for "glittering ice"
-the Caucasus is the mountainous region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
-it constitutes the most contested boundary between Russia and the Middle East.
-the north Caucasus forms the highest, and historically the most impenetrable, parts of the Caucasus mountain range
Ancient Greece
-the Caucasus is frequently featured in ancient Greek myths and legends; it was there that Promethus suffered, chained to a rock; it where the Argonauts sought the Golden Fleece.
650 BC (circa) the Greek colony of Dioscurus flourishes on the eastern coast of the Black sea,
Migrations
250 AD (circa)- 1240AD "For more than a thousand years the mountain fastness of this borderland between Europe and Asia were the refuge or the resting place of successive waves of migration, as people after people and tribe after tribe was compelled to give way..." Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed.
550 AD- the Huns and the Avars pass through the region.
660 AD- Islam arrives just south of Tiflis in central Caucasus. Conquers but fails to convert the region.
The Khazars
800-1242- Kazaria/Khazar Empire includes the north Caucasus.
900 AD (circa)- Caucasus converted to Christianity.
The Mongol Conquest.
1220- Mongol conquest of the Caucasus.
1466- The Caspian Sea Khanate of Astrakhan emerges with the disintegration of the Mongol Golden Horde.
The Ottomans and Russia
1550- (circa) Karabakh (Georgia) in the south Caucasus and Dagesrtan in the east, on the Caspian sea are states dependent on the Ottoman Sultan.
1566- The Khanate of Astrakhan is dissolved under Ivan IV ("the Terrible") as Russia expands. This predominantly Islamic, ethnically diverse region, which includes part of present-day Dagestan, is incorporated into Russia
-Imeriti on the Black Sea in the west Caucascus is a tributary state to the Ottoman Sultan.
Russia, the Ottomans and Persia
1722- Russia, under Peter the Great, annexes Dagestan and its Black Sea port of Derbent, from Persia.
1723- Russia takes Baku.
1723- Dagestan a tributary state to the Ottomans.
1745- Derbent and Baku restored to Persia,
1774, 1784- Russia expands further into the Caucasus.
1802-1806- Russia conquers Ossetia.
The Russo-Persian War.
1804-1813- Russo Persian War
1811- Russia takes Imeritia
1810- Russia takes Ankazia.
1813- Russo Persian War ends with Peace of Gulistan: Persia cedes much of the eastern Caucasus including Dagestan and Shemakha to Russia.
Russia moves into the Caucasus.
-Chechens convert to Sunni Islam in hope of gaining protection Ottoman protection from Russia.
1820-1864- Russia gradually absorbs the north Causacus.
1826- the Convention of Akkerman: Dagestan and Grozny (Chechnya) officially ceded to Russia by the Ottomans.
1828-1829- Russia acquires territory in Dagetsan on the Caspian sea coast from Persia and from the Ottomans.
The Warlord Shamil
1830-1859- the Imam Shamil "the Avar" (1797-1871) an east Caucasus Muslim warlord and chief the Lesghians (in modern day Chechnya and Dagestan) declares Jihad against Russia and resists a thirty year campaign of Russian military conquest.
1831-1832- Russia quells a Dagestan uprising.
1831- Shamil escapes Russian imprisonment at Himry.
1834-1858 Imam Shamil rules over a self-proclaimed imamat (Chechnya). He unites part of the North Caucasian highlanders in their struggle against tsarist Russia and sets up a theocratic sharia state known as imamat that resisted Tsarist Russia for 27 years.
1839. Shamil escapes Russian imprisonment at Ashulgo
1839- Shamil retreats from Russians and consolidates his position in Akhulgo, Dagestan.
1849- Shamil escapes again from Russian imprisonment at Ashulgo.
1859- Sept. 6- Shamil forced to surrender to Russians at Gunib in central Dagestan.
Russian Conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan.
1859- Russia takes Chechnya.
1864- Russia takes Cherkessia in the west, on the northeast coast of the Black Sea.
-population of western Caucauses is depleted by out-migration to Turkey.
Russo-Turkish War.
1877-1878- Russo-Turkish War- the Turks try unsuccessfully to restore the west Caucasus to the original tribes.
1878- brief uprising by the Dagestan Lesghians is crushed by Russia.
1899- about half of present-day Chechnya is part of Dagestan.
Caucasian Civil War.
1903-1905- entire region is consumed in civil war along ethnic and religious lines.
1915- Turkey begins the massacre of the Armenians in the south Caucasus.
1921- The Soviet Union establishes the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Soviet Chechen Autonomous Region.
1922 - Chechen autonomous region established by Bolsheviks; becomes the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1934.
1936- The Chechen-Ingush ASSR is established, leading to the modern-day Chechnya or Chechen Republic.
1944- During World War II, Chechens are falsely accused of collaborating with the invading Nazis. The Checheno-Ingush ASSR was abolished until 1958. Stalin deports the entire Chechen nation to Kazakhstan. Many tens of thousands of people die en-route or in camps. Mosques in Chechnya are destroyed.. Soviet dictator Stalin deports the entire Chechen and Ingush populations to Siberia and Central Asia, citing alleged collaboration with Nazi Germany. Many thousands die in the process.
Soviet Rehabilitation of Chechens.
1957- Feb 11- Soviet Union rehabilitates Chechens and Ingush who had been exiled to Kazakhstan during World War II.
- Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev restores the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Khrushchev permits Chechen exiles to return. However, the survivors could not resettle in their traditional mountain villages, but rather had to live in the lowlands under Russian control.
Collapse of the Soviet Union; Chechnya declares independence.
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union. Chechen Communist leader Doku Zavgayev overthrown; Dzhokhar Dudayev wins a presidential poll and proclaims Chechnya independent of Russia.
1991- Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudaev declares independence of Chechnya from Russia.
1992 - Chechnya adopts a constitution defining it as an independent, secular state governed by a president and parliament.
-Chechen "ties to al Qaeda began in 1992, when al Qaeda and its brother organization, the Haqqani Network, created the Furqan (a chapter in the Koran meaning "the criterion") Project, a training program for jihadists from the former Soviet Central Asian republics and the Caucasus Mountains." (CBS News)
THE FIRST CHECHEN WAR.
Russia Attempts re-conquest of Chechnya.
1994 December - Russian troops enter Chechnya to quash the independence movement. Up to 100,000 people - many of them civilians - are estimated to have been killed in the 20-month war that followed.
1995- Chechnya at war with Russia.
1995 June - Chechen rebels seize hundreds of hostages at a hospital in Budennovsk, southern Russia. More than 100 are killed in the raid and in an unsuccessful Russian commando operation.
Chechen leader Dudayev killed.
1996 April - Dudayev killed in a Russian missile attack; Zemlikhan Yandarbiyev succeeds him.
1996 May - Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Yandarbiyev sign a peace agreement; the short-lived truce lasts until July.
Ceasefire, Russian Troop Withdrawal and Peace Treaty.
1996 August - Chechen rebels launch a successful attack on Grozny; Yeltsin's security chief General Alexander Lebed and Chechen rebel chief of staff Aslan Maskhadov sign the Khasavyurt Accords
which provide for a ceasefire. An agreement on Russian troop withdrawals is signed in November.
Rebel chief Aslan Maskhadov recognized as president of Chechnya.
1997 January - Russia recognises Maskhadov's government following his victory in Chechen presidential elections.
1997 May - Yeltsin and Maskhadov sign a formal peace treaty, but the issue of Chechen independence is not resolved.
The North Caucasus circa 1998.
-Constituent Republics within the Russian federation (not directly ruled from Moscow) are: Dagestan, Inguteshia, North Ossetia, Kabardino Balkaria, and Karachey Cherkessia.
-Chechnya in a state of de facto autonomy.
Kidnappings by Chechen Rebels.
1998 May - Valentin Vlasov, Russia's presidential representative in Chechnya, is kidnapped and held for six months. Later in the year, four engineers from Britain and New Zealand are kidnapped and murdered.
1998 June - Amid growing lawlessness, Maskhadov imposes a state of emergency.
Maskhadov declares Sharia Law.
1999 January/February - Maskhadov declares Islamic Shari'ah law will be phased in over three years.
A group of former rebel field commanders announces the formation of a rival body to govern Chechnya according to Shari'ah law and calls on Aslan Maskhadov to relinquish the presidency.
1999 March - Moscow's top envoy to Chechnya, General Gennadiy Shpigun, is kidnapped from the airport in Grozny. His corpse is found in Chechnya in March 2000.
Chechen Islamists Invade Dagestan; Russia invades Chechnya.
- Chechen Islamist militants led by warlords Ibn Al Khattab and Shamil Basayev launch two invasions of neighboring Dagestan "with the aim of creating an 'independent Islamic State of Dagestan'. Although Basayev and Khattab expected that they would be welcomed as liberators, the Dagestanis instead see them as occupiers and unwelcome religious fanatics. The initial resistance against the invasion is provided by the Dagestani police, spontaneous militias and villagers.Once Russian military help arrives, the invaders were beaten and driven back to Chechnya. As a retaliation, Russian forces subsequently. (Wikipedia)
-Russian forces respond by invading Chechnya again. Skirmishes continue.
1999 July/August - Chechen fighters clash with Russian troops on the Chechnya-Dagestan border; Chechen rebels stage armed incursions into Dagestan in an attempt to create an Islamic state.
1999 Aug 7, Islamic fighters based in Chechnya seize two village in Dagestan. Warlords Shamil Basayev and Wahabbi commander Amir Khattab (Hattab) are reported to be involved. This triggers the second Chechen war.
THE SECOND CHECHEN WAR.
Chechens take the war inside Russia.
1999 September - A bomb attack on Russian military housing in Dagestan and a series of apartment block bombings elsewhere in Russia are blamed on Chechen rebels; some 300 people are killed in the blasts. Russian forces redeploy in Chechnya; the new prime minister, Vladimir Putin, says the campaign is needed to quash terrorism.
Russian Prime Minister Putin Swears to Crush Terrorism. Russia Captures Grozny
1999 October - Moscow-based State Council of the Republic of Chechnya established by former members of the Chechen republican legislature. Moscow recognizes it as the sole legitimate Chechen authority and refuses to negotiate with Maskhadov.
2000 February - Russian troops capture Grozny; much of the city is razed.
2000 May - President Putin declares direct rule from Moscow.
Russia appoints Akhmat Kadyrovm to head Chechnya. War continues.
2000 June - Russia appoints former Chechen cleric Akhmat Kadyrov as head of its administration in Chechnya.
2001 - Human rights organizations express concern about human rights violations in Chechnya, including alleged torture and widespread detentions at the hands of Russian troops. Concerns are fueled by the discovery of a mass grave filled with mutilated bodies.
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2001 September - In the aftermath of the 11 September attacks on the US, Putin urges rebels to "halt all contacts with international terrorists".
New Talks between Russia and Chechnya. Maskhadov leads separatists.
2001 November - First official negotiations since 1999 as Maskhadov's representative Akhmed Zakayev and Russia's Kazantsev hold talks on a peace settlement in Moscow.
2001 December - Captured rebel field commander Salman Raduyev sentenced to life imprisonment on murder, terrorism charges. He dies in a Russian jail in December 2002.
2002 July - UN suspends aid operations in Chechnya for six months after a Russian aid worker is kidnapped.
2002 August - Georgia accuses Russia of carrying out air raids in the Pankisi gorge, close to Georgia's border with Chechnya. Moscow says the gorge is a safe haven for Chechen rebel groups and presses for an international operation to flush them out.
Chechen Terror Operations in Moscow Theatre and in Grozny.
2002 October - Chechen rebels seize a Moscow theatre and hold about 800 people hostage. Most of the rebels and some 120 hostages are killed when Russian forces storm the building.
2002 December - Suicide bomb attack on the Grozny base of the Russian-backed Chechen government kills around 80 people. Rebels claim responsibility.
Referendum for new Chechen Constitution. Suicide Attacks Continue.
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2003 May - Over 50 people killed in suicide bombing of government building in the north of the republic. Two days later administration chief Kadyrov has narrow escape in another suicide attack which leaves more than a dozen dead.
Kadyrov elected president of Chechnya. Russian Offensive in Dagestan.
2003 October - Akhmad Kadyrov elected president.
2003 December - Russian forces kill about a dozen Chechen fighters after band of rebels crosses border into neighbouring Dagestan and takes hostages.
2004 February - Former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev killed in explosion in Qatar, where he had been living for three years. Two Russian intelligence agents subsequently sentenced to life in jail by a Qatari court for the killing.
Kadyrov killed.
2004 May - President Akhmad Kadyrov and many others killed in Grozny bomb blast.
2004 June - Dozens killed in neighbouring Ingushetia in attacks reported to have involved hundreds of gunmen. President Putin blames Chechen rebels led by Aslan Maskhadov whose spokesman denies the latter's direct involvement but says Chechen volunteers took part.
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Cechen Extremists take children hostage in North Ossetia.
2004 September - Hundreds are killed or wounded - many of them children - when a siege at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, ends in bloodbath. President Putin blames international terrorists with links to Chechen separatist fighters. Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov condemns the seizure but says it was carried out by "madmen" seeking revenge for Russian actions against their own loved ones in Chechnya
Alu Alkhanov elected president.
2004 October - Kremlin-backed former Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov sworn in as president following August elections.
2005 February - Separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov calls ceasefire and urges the Russian authorities to agree to peace talks. The official Chechen leadership dismisses his overtures and says he should give himself up.
Maskhadov killed. Russian operations continue.
2005 March - Russian forces say Aslan Maskhadov has been killed in a special operation in Chechnya.
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2005 July - About 15 people killed when armoured police vehicle blown up north of Groznyy.
Kabardino-Balkaria attacked by Chechen warlord Basayev,
2005 October - Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev says he commanded militant forces which launched major assault in Nalchik, capital of the North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Dozens die in clashes between Russian forces and rebel fighters.
New parliament
Chechen election backs Russia.
2005 November - Tight security in place for regional parliamentary elections regarded by Moscow as important for normalization but by separatist forces as a charade. More than 50% of the seats are won by Kremlin-backed United Russia.
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-Dangerously high levels of radiation found at a Groznyy chemical factory reported to have been unsecured since Russia bombed it during the assault of 1999.
2006 February - 13 people are killed in an explosion at Russian military barracks near Groznyy. Officials say a gas leak was the most likely cause but do not rule out other theories.
Abramov resigns as prime minister. Kadryov replaces him.
2006 March - Ramzan Kadyrov becomes prime minister after Sergey Abramov resigns.
2006 June - Separatist leader Abdul-Khalim Saydullayev killed by government forces. He is succeeded by Doku Umarov.
Chechen warlord Basayev killed in Ingiteshia operation.
2006 October - Prominent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of the Kremlin's actions in Chechnya, is shot dead in Moscow.
2007 February/March - President Alu Alkhanov is moved to a post in the Russian government by Russian President Vladimir Putin who names Ramzan Kadyrov as his successor. The Chechen parliament approves his candidacy.
2007 June - A military court in southern Russia sentences four soldiers to prison terms for murdering six Chechen civilians, in a rare ruling against Russian troops.
United Russia party "wins" 99% of vote in Chechnya.
2007 December - The United Russia party, which backs Russian President Vladimir Putin, wins 99% of the vote in Chechnya in Russian parliamentary elections. Foreign observers say the election was "not fair".
2008 February - Russian President Vladimir Putin's favoured successor, Dmitry Medvedev, wins 89% of the vote in Chechnya, on a turnout of 91%.
Russia declares 'Normalization'
2009 April - Russia declares the nearly decade-old "counterterrorism operation" against separatist rebels to be over, a month after President Medvedev said life in the republic had "normalised to a large degree".
2010 February - Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov drops three libel suits against human rights activists and journalists who accused him of murder.
2010 April - Rebel leader Doku Umarov claims responsibility for deadly suicide attacks on Moscow Metro in March.
2010 August - Doku Umarov appears to announce in a YouTube video that he is retiring because of his age and names Aslambek Vadalov as his successor. Days later, he declares that his resignation statement was a "falsification" and that he is staying on.
Attack on Chechen parliament.
2010 October - Gunmen attack parliament, killing four people before being killed themselves.
2010 November - Three men go on trial in Austria accused of complicity in the murder of a former bodyguard of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who strongly denies allegations he ordered the killing.
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