Customer Reviews

The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union?

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The Chechen Wars by Matthew Evangelista (Professor of Government and Director of the Peace Studies Program, Cornell University) is a close, meticulous study of the root causes of the Chechen Wars of 1994 and 1999, and an informative, scholarly examination of the impact these conflicts had on both Chechnya and Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Stressing the importance of dealing with violent conflict without undermining citizens' freedom and rights, as well as calling for the United States to be more attentive and provide a role model applicable to Russia's conflicts, The Chechen Wars is sober, involving reading and a very strongly recommended addition to International Studies reference collections in general, and Chechen/Russian Studies reading lists in particular.

Matthew Evangelista's book addresses many of the most pertinent questions surrounding the conflict. His analysis is powerfully informed by a vast array of sources and rests in a solid background of international relations theory. If you'd like to understand the dynamics of the Russo-Chechen war more, this book is an excellent read! Particularly the section on 'International Responses' is quite illuminating.

Evangelista believes that Russia would not have disintegrated (in the sense that other autonomous regions would not have tried to break away from Russia) if Chechnya had been granted its independence. This may be a valid point. The thing is, Evangelista seems to lay the blame entirely on the Russian government and the military. No one will deny that the Chechen people have suffered horribly since 1994 due to Russian bombardment of civilian areas and deliberate massacres of Chechens.

However, this is looking at the conflict only through the eyes of the Chechen perspective, while not really considering the Russian one. Evangelista also seems to try and minimise terrorist attacks on Russians by Chechen fighters and then when the operation leads to loss of life, once again places blame on the Russians. I also found it offensive when he wrote that there is reason to believe that the Russian FSB (successor to the KGB) deliberately placed explosives in Moscow apartment blocks in 1999 which led to the deaths of over 300 civilians.

He believes this was done so that the Russian government would have an excuse to invade Chechnya a second time. This really is ludicrous, to my mind. I remember that the actress Vanessa Redgrave on Sky News after the Beslan terrorist attack stated that the two plane bombings in Russia recently were also the work of the FSB, not the Chechen fighters!

And then a few days later, Shamil Basayev himself admitted that he was responsible for the plane bombings. These are ridiculous and highly offensive comments (and I'm not even a Russian) so one can only imagine what the Russians must think of these "theories"

All in all, this book was just a little too one-sided and critical only of the Russians, while trying to keep criticism of the Chechens down to a bare minimum.

This book is written well and describes many situations in the hardly paid attention to Chechen War.