Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus - Softcover

Gall, Carlotta; Waal, Thomas De

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814731325 ISBN 13: 9780814731321

Publisher: NYU Press, 1999

Synopsis

"[A] gripping narrative of war, politics, and diplomacy."—New York Times Book Review

The war in Chechnya left us with some of the most harrowing images in recent times: a modern European city bombed to ruins while its citizens cowered in bunkers; mass graves; mothers combing the hills for their missing sons.

The product of investigative and on-the-scene reporting by two established journalists, Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal's captivating book recounts the story of the Chechens' violent struggle for independence, and the Kremlin politics that precipitated it. Exploring Chechnya's complex and bloody history, the work is also a portrait of Russia's failed attempt to make the transition to a democratic society.

About this title

Review

Chechnya, located in Northern Caucasus, was brought to its knees from a barrage of bombs and relentless destruction. The evening news showed images of mutilated bodies lying uncovered on the streets while the screams of mothers who had lost their children could be heard in the background. In the 1994 war between the Russian military and Chechen guerillas, 60,000 lives were lost. Why did it take place and what was at stake? What was gained and at what cost?

Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus, by Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal, is the first book-length account of what happened. Gall and de Waal, two reporters who spent many months in the war-torn territory of Chechnya dodging bullets and the threat of hostage crisis, give a truthful and balanced view to a subject that is both complex and harrowing. Their focus is on the main antagonists of the war, including Boris Yeltzin and Dudayev, the charismatic leader of the Chechens. In tracing the history of this tragic conflict, Gall and de Waal reveal a longstanding enmity between the Russians and the Chechens--animosity which dates back to Russia's imperial expansions in the 1830s and continues through Stalin's ruthless deportations of 1944. They argue that if Russian politicians had had a better sense of the past, bloodshed might have been avoided.

Tragic as the situation in Chechnya is, de Waal and Gall warn that this is not an isolated case; the lack of order since the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the consequent problems of forming a working democracy has led to chaos and ambivalence at the highest echelons of power. And here lies the poignant message and warning of the book: Chechnya could happen again. --Jeremy Storey END

From the Back Cover

Chechnya recounts the story of the violent struggle for independence and the Kremlin politics that precipitated it. Historically, the Chechens' tight clan and religious structures made them especially resistant to assimilation by Russia. In 1944 they were one of the largest ethnic groups to be deported en masse by Stalin. Their history should have warned any Moscow strategist that, if forced to, many would fight a savage war to the end to defend themselves. And in the end the Chechen fighters achieved the almost impossible when they defeated the Russian army and forced it to withdraw. The product of investigative and on-the-scenes reporting by two established journalists in Chechnya over a three-year period between 1994 and 1997, Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal's account of the Chechens is also a portrait of Russia's failed attempt to make the transition to a democratic society.

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0814731325
• ISBN 13: 9780814731321
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416