August 06, 2000

Dagestan - Islamic Center and War Zone


Dagestan - Islamic Center and War Zone

First of all, one should keep in mind that the conflict in Dagestan and Chechnya goes back roughly 300 years. Russia's latest war with Chechnya actually began in neighboring Dagestan when over 1,000 Islamics declared a holy war on Russia for Dagestani independence. These individuals were members of the militant Wahhabi group who wanted to see Sharia law in Dagestan. The Wahhabis took advantage of Dagestan's mountainous terrain as it was ideal for their guerrilla style of warfare. Their ultimate goal was an independent, Muslim North Caucasus which controlled access to the Caspian Sea.

Dagestani Muslims are not militant by nature, unlike their Chechen brothers. During August of 1999, acting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed to squash these rebels in two weeks. However, the Wahhabis proved to be tougher to beat and the conflict has drug on into the new millennium. Moscow, convinced that the rebels were maintaining bases of operation in Chechnya, began conducting military action back and forth across the Chechen - Dagestani border. As the war drug on, Moscow widen its scope to include putting down Chechnya's claim to independence from Russia.

The Islamic council of Dagestan is not recognized by Moscow; only the republic's elected parliament. During the summer of 1999, this council drew up and signed a declaration of independence and called upon Muslims in Chechnya to support their efforts. This declaration is reported to have been signed at a meeting held in one of the mountain villages of Dagestan, under the control of the rebel Wahhabi Chechens. The effort is aimed at making Dagestan and Chechnya a single Islamic state.

The Wahhabi movement dates back to the mid-1700s and was founded by Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdula Wahhab. His battle cry was for all Muslims to return to a pure form of Islam and put forth by the prophet, Mohammed. Wahhab preached that Islam should be spread and rooted in a given culture by force. This ideal did take root in what is now Saudi Arabia where the Wahhabis are still centered. Eventually, Wahhab's teachings spread to other regions, including the North Caucasus.

Moscow hesitated, at first, to use total force against the Islamic rebels. The disaster that was the Chechen war of 1994 - 96, is still very fresh in the mind of the Kremlin and the Russian people. Russia has deployed artillery units and air power to the region where the guerrilla population has proven to be greater than anticipated. One of the tactics used by the guerrillas is to burrow their way into the mountains, creating a series of fortified tunnels in which to hide, store their supplies and fight from. The Russian Army's chore is to bombard these fortifications in hopes of driving the rebels out into the open.

The war around Dagestani towns, such as Chabanmakhi, is a game of cat and mouse. The rebels take a village and dig in. The Russian's shell them until they either run away or come out and fight. The numbers of military and civilian deaths and wounded mount daily. This has turned into the same type of war fought in 1994 - 96, in which Russia lost. The question is, how much time, money and souls can or should Moscow risk in this round of warfare with the Islamic rebels in Dagestan and Chechyna?

The conflict in Chechyna and Dagestan still rages on. It is anyone's guess as to when or how it will be resolved. Since the details change daily, I suggest you refer to Russian Culture Updates for the latest headlines.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955