Dzhokhar Dudayev

Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev (Chechen: Дудин Муса кант Жовхар; Russian: Джохар Мусаевич Дудаев) (February 1944 – April 21 1996) was a Soviet Air Force general and a Chechen leader, the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, a breakaway state in the North Caucasus.

Early life and military career

Dudayev was born in February 1944, during the forced deportation of his family (together with the entire Chechen, Ingush, Balkar, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatar and other smaller nations, on the orders of Joseph Stalin) from their native village of Yalkhoroi in the abolished Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). He spent the first 13 years of his life in the internal exile in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.

Memorial plaque in Tartu

Following the 1957 repatriation of the Chechens and Ingush, he studied at evening school in Checheno-Ingushetia and qualified as an electrician. In 1962, after two years studying electronics in Vladikavkaz, he entered the Tambov Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots from which he graduated in 1966. It is alleged he officially misrepresented his ethnicity as Ossetian in order to sidestep discrimination against the Chechen people. Dudayev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1968 and in 1971-1974 studied at the prestigious Gagarin Air Force Academy. He also married Alla, a Russian poetess with whom he had three children.

Dudayev served in a heavy bomber unit of the Soviet Air Force in Siberia and Ukraine and also took part in the Soviet war in Afghanistan.^[1] He rose steadily in the Air Force, assuming command of the air base of the Soviet Strategic Air Force at Tartu, Estonia, in 1987 with the rank of Major-General. Dudayev learned Estonian and showed great tolerance for Estonian nationalism when he ignored the orders to shut down the Estonian television and parliament; instead he sent a mobile military kitchen. In 1990, his air division was withdrawn from Estonia and Dudayev resigned from the Soviet military (though he never formally left the Communist Party).

Chechen politics

In May 1990, Dudayev returned to Grozny, the Chechen capital, to devote himself to local politics. He was elected head of the Executive Committee of the unofficial opposition All-National Congress of the Chechen People (NCChP), which advocated sovereignty for Chechnya as a separate republic of the Soviet Union (the Chechen-Ingush ASSR had status of the autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic).

In August 1991, Doku Zavgayev, the communist leader of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, publicly expressed his support for the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Following the failure of the putsch, the Soviet Union began to disintegrate rapidly as the constituent republics took moves to leave the beleaguered Soviet Union. Taking advantage of the Soviet Union's implosion, Dudayev and his supporters acted against the Zavgayev's administration. On September 6, 1991, militants of the NCChP invaded a session of the local Supreme Soviet, effectively dissolving the government of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. Grozny television station and other key government buildings were also taken over.

President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

After a controversial referendum in October 1991 confirmed Dudayev in his new position as president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, he unilaterally declared the republic's sovereignty and its independence from Soviet Union. In November 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin dispatched troops to Grozny, but they were withdrawn when Dudayev's forces prevented them from leaving the airport. Russia refused to recognize the republic's independence, but hesitated to use further force against the separatists. From this point the Chechen-Ingush Republic had become a de facto independent state.

Initially Dudayev's government held diplomatic relations with Georgia where he received much moral support from the first Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia. When Gamsakhurdia was overthrown in late 1991, he was given asylum in Chechnya and attended Dudayev's inauguration as President. While he resided in Grozny he also helped to organise the first "All-Caucasian Conference" which was attended by independentist groups from across the region. Ichkeria never received diplomatic recognition from any internationally recognised state other than Georgia in 1991.

The Chechen-Ingush Republic split in two in June 1992, amidst the increasing Ossetian-Ingush conflict. After Chechnya had announced its initial declaration of sovereignty in 1991, its former entity Ingushetia opted to join the Russian Federation as a federal subject (Republic of Ingushetia). The remaining rump state of Ichkeria (Chechnya) declared full independence in 1993. That same year the Russian language stopped being taught in Chechen schools and it was also announced that the Chechen language would start to be written using the Latin alphabet (with some additional special Chechen characters) rather than the Cyrillic alphabet that had been imposed on the Chechen people during the 1930s. The state also began to print its own money and stamps. One of Dudayev's first decrees gave every man the right to bear arms.

Dudayev's pro-independence policies soon began to undermine Chechnya's economy and, Russian observers claimed, allegedly transformed the region into a criminal paradise. The non-Chechen population of Ichkeria left the republic due to criminal elements and faced with indifferent government.^[2] In 1993, the Chechen parliament attempted to organize a referendum on public confidence in Dudayev on the grounds that he had failed to consolidate Chechnya's independence. He retaliated by dissolving parliament and other organs of power. Beginning in early summer of 1994, armed Chechen opposition groups with Russian military and financial backing tried repeatedly but without success to depose Dudayev by force.

First Chechen War

Main article: First Chechen War

On December 1 1994, the Russians began bombing Grozny airport and destroyed the Chechen Airforce (former Soviet training aircraft requisitioned by the republic in 1991). In response Ichkeria declared war on Russia and mobilised its armed forces. On December 11 1994, five days after Dudayev and Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev of Russia had agreed to avoid the further use of force, Russian troops invaded Chechnya. One of Dudayev's two sons have been killed in action early in the war.

Before the fall of Grozny, Dudayev moved south with his forces and continued leading the war throughout 1995, reportedly from a missile silo close to the historic Chechen capital of Vedeno. He continued to insist that his forces would prevail after the conventional warfare had finished, and the Chechen guerrilla fighters continued to operate across the entire country picking off Russian units and demoralising their soldiers. A Jihad was declared on Russia by the Dudayev-appointed Mufti of Ichkeria, Akhmad Kadyrov, and foreign volunteers began pouring into the republic, mostly from neighbouring North Caucasian Muslim republics such as Dagestan. Dudayev's popularity in the Baltic states, especially Estonia, was also one of the reasons behind the myth of the White Tights, alleged Baltic female snipers fighting on the Chechen side.

Death and legacy

President Dudayev was killed on the April 21 1996, by two laser-guided missiles when he was using a satellite phone, after his location was detected by a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which intercepted his phone call. Despite America's ban on assassinations, there is a conspiracy theory that suspects the NSA was involved in the assassination by providing one of their SIGINT satellites to assist in the triangulation.^[3] At the time Dudayev was reportedly talking to a liberal deputy of the Duma in Moscow, reportedly Konstantin Borovoy. Additional aircraft were dispatched (a Su-24MR and a Su-25) to locate Dudayev and fire a guided missile. Exact details of this operation were never released by the Russian government. However, it is known that Russian reconnaissance planes in the area had been monitoring satellite communications for quite some time trying to match Dudayev's voice signature to the existing samples of his speech. It was also claimed Dudayev's was killed by a combination of a rocket attack and a booby trap.^[4]

The death of Dudayev was announced on the interrupted television broadcast by Shamil Basayev, the Chechen guerrilla commander.^[5] Dudayev was succeeded by his Vice-President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev (as acting President) and then, after the 1997 popular elections, by his wartime Chief of Staff, Aslan Maskhadov.

Dzhokhar Dudayev was survived by his wife, Alla Dudayeva, and the younger son, Tegi Dudayev.

Places named in honor of Dudayev

House number in Dzhokhar Dudayev avenue in Riga, Latvia.

• Turkey - After Dudayev's death, various locations in Turkey were renamed after him, such as Cevher Dudayev Meydanı (Dzhokhar Dudayev Square) in Ankara and Şehit Cevher Dudayev Parkı (Martyr Dzhokhar Dudayev Park) in Adapazarı, Sakarya.^[6]

• Latvia - From 1996, there is Dzhokhar Dudayev Avenue (Džohara Dudajeva gatve) in the Latvian capital Riga.

• Ukraine - Also in 1996, a street in Lviv was named after him (вулиця Джохара Дудаєва), later followed by Ivano-Frankivsk.

• Lithuania - Dzhokhar Dudayev Square (Dzocharo Dudajevo skveras) in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

• Poland - On March 17, 2005, a roundabout in the Polish capital Warsaw was named Rondo Dżochara Dudajewa.^[7]

• Estonia - A large room in the Barclay Hotel in Tartu, once used as Dudayev's office, is now called the Dudayev Suite. In the Nursipalo urban warfare training polygon of the Estonian Defence Forces, Johhar Dudayev Street crosses with Basayev Street.

• Bosnia and Herzegovina - A street of Ulica Generala Džohara Dudajeva in Goražde.

• Chechnya - Chechnya's war-ravaged capital has been called Dzhokhar-Ghala (later Jokhar) by separatists in 1997 during its de facto independence. After the Second Chechen War its official name became Grozny again, but is still called Jokhar by some separatists.^[8]

References

• 1994-1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica

External links

• PROFILE: Dzhokhar Dudayev: Lone wolf of Grozny , The Independent, Jan 22, 1996

Preceded by Declaration of Republic

President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria 1991–1996

Succeeded by Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev

Leaders of Chechnya since 1991  Chechen Republic Dzhokhar Dudayev • Salambek Khadzhiyev* • Doku Zavgayev • Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev* • Aslan Maskhadov • Akhmad Kadyrov • Sergey Abramov* • Alu Alkhanov • Ramzan Kadyrov  Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Dzhokhar Dudayev • Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev • Aslan Maskhadov • Sheikh Abdul Halim • Dokka Umarov • Akhmed Zakayev Caucasian Emirate (since 2007) Dokka Umarov * acting