Customer Reviews

Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Gall and De Waal have done an excellent job of presenting the origins of the conflict and the clash of egos which led to the most recent civil war. An excellent analysis of the war from both sides with little sympathy for either of the combatant factions. One can only feel sympathy for those caught in the middle and anger toward the leaders of both sides who refused to accept a compromise before it was too late.

This book is a decent introduction for non-specialists who didn't necessarily follow events as they were unfolding a few years ago. However, to its discredit I have to say that it is clearly pro-Chechen, almost to the point of being propaganda in some places. The authors seem to buy into the romantic, historical image of the Chechen freedom fighter, but only emphasize the atrocities committed by the Russians. I suppose that's an occupational hazard faced by war journalists who spend a lot of time covering a conflict among the forces of one side. After all, every point of view has limitiations.

I found this book an excellent survey of the causes, conduct, and results of the Chechen conflict. The only distracting item is that the authors switch from the third person to the first person,without any transition, when recalling interviews or situations while they were in Chechnya. This book is a must for students of contemporary history of Chechnya, Russia, and the Russian military's ineffectiveness in this conflict. This story is far from over and this book helps one understand how the Russians and the Chechens got to where they are today.

This is a well-researched book. From media reports, the question often asked is Chechnya a "rogue province of Russia or independent state?" You can form you own opinion by reading this book, among others that cover this conflict.
There is a lot of general information about the Chechens and their culture in this book. It paints a picture of who these people are. Chechen history and their relationship with Russia has been mired in conflict for centuries. From the author's point of view, the Chechens have been not treated very well by their mammoth neighbor to the north, and constant intrusions upon them has caused them to suffer because of this oppression. The deportations of Chechens to Kazakstan by Stalin are among other things that fuel the conflict today, and the operation and ramifications of their exile were explained in a full chapter. The cultural norms cited in the book are very interesting. Traditions, dances, swords and feuds, and a fervent desire for autonomy. Beheading takes place, with the head of the enemy shown around the town. This book did appear to sympathize with the Chechens. But that's for each individual to decide.

A lot of information is given about the internal Chechen and Russian political, diplomatic, and military events and strategies that occurred during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The actions of Dudayev and Yeltsin are noted throughout the book.

The book is a little slow in the begining going back far in the history of the Chechens but to understand what is going on today you need to know what happend awhile ago. Once you get brought up to date the book goes quickly....great writing/reporting.

When the Soviet Union imploded, the Chechens made a bolt for freedom. Russia has launched two major wars to bring the rebels to heel since then. This action-packed book describes the first campaign, the 1994-96 war, which caused 60,000 fatalities and a host of human rights violations. The second one is continuing and the death toll has already surpassed that of Russia's first, failed campaign. Human rights violations are today in Chechnya as common place as they were in the first campaign. This seminal book therefore remains relevant to trying to understand one of the world's most violent regions.

The authors are two journalists who spent almost a year in the killing fields of Chechnya collecting their research material in between dodging the bombs and the bullets. Although the book focuses on the main antagonists of the first war, including Boris Yeltsin and Johkar Dudayev, the late charismatic leader of the Chechens, it also performs several other useful functions. It traces the origins of the enmity between the Russians and the Chechens back to Russia's imperial expansions in the 1830s. Stalin's ruthless deportations of 1944 are also given their due prominence; Stalin believed the Chechens collaborated with the Nazis and deported all of them from the northern Caucasus. Although Khrushchev later allowed them to return, the Chechens have retained a deep loathing of Moscow ever since. There is no love lost here.

Moscow is in no financial or moral shape to buy the Chechens off. It has instead opted for a military solution. However, a military solution calls for disciplined assault troops, the type of soldiers who pushed the Nazis back from Moscow to Berlin. This is all the more so when faced with the caliber of resistance the Chechens present. However, Russia's armed forces no longer possesses such men. The army's officers and men are an undisciplined, under-paid hotchpotch of young conscripts and incompetent malcontents, who have no burning desire to die for Mother Russia.

The authors draw attention to the human rights violations Russia's conscript army routinely commits. Indiscriminate killings, kidnappings and robberies are daily occurrences. The Russians are more interested in collecting bribes than in fighting the war to its conclusion. This allows the rebels the necessary degree of latitude to pursue their objectives. They operate in shifts, alternating between living as civilians and as partisans. There is no evidence in this book that this unhappy cycle will end in the near future. The Chechens are geared up for the long haul.

Stalin, who crushed the Chechens in his own brutal way, was well aware of the Chechens' military prowess. He once famously quipped that a handful of Chechens would be enough to defeat Hitler. When the current war in Chechnya ends, there might only be a handful of them left. But they will have exacted a terrible price on their Russian enemies. Putin cannot resort to Stalin's total terror tactics. He must deal with outside pressures. Although Western concerns about human rights abuses are one of these, there is another which the authors could possibly have spent more time discussing.

Chechnya has wider dimensions, chief of which are the region's growing adherence to Islamic fundamentalism and the need of the Russians for a safe southern underbelly. When the Soviets rashly invaded Afghanistan in 1979, they initiated a process that led to the destruction of their own empire. That process is continuing most forcefully in the Caucasus where ethnic and sectarian tensions abound. Russia has few allies in the area. There are the hard-pressed Armenians and the Georgians, who are obsessed with their own problems. And there are not many more.

Although Russia must pacify the Caucasus, this book does not offer them much hope. Quite the opposite in fact. The forces of history seem to be on the side of the Islamic fighters in Chechnya and neighboring countries. However unpalatable that may be to some of us, it is the conclusion of this book and of any impartial adjudication of the evidence seeping out from Russia's latest unwinnable war.

Shortly after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, the recently formed and tenuously stable Russia became embroiled in a new kind of war; the war in Chechnya.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union, a number of former Soviet territories made a grab for independence. Some of the states achieved sovereignty with little bloodshed. Others faced the full might of the Russian political and military fist attempting to prevent succession. Such was the case of Chechnya.

Gall and de Waal, both journalists having covered Russia and its provinces for many years, have created an excellent work examining the causes, costs and repercussions of the Chechen War. The book does a superb job of providing historical background on the region and people of Chechnya, their long history of independence, and their many battles with Russian authority.

The story then moves to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent instability and lack of effectiveness of the new Russian government. Out of this instability and inefficiency emerged a Chechen move towards independence, an act unacceptable to Moscow. The result was a bloody guerrilla war between the Russian military and the Chechen separatists. Both sides suffered innumerable casualties, and the financial cost of the conflict still ravages the region.

The authors rely on innumerable materials garnered from media sources and personal interviews with major players, both Soviet and Chechen, from the conflict. The resulting text is both concise and readable, providing an objective look at the war in Chechnya from the eyes of the Russian political and military leaders as well as the guerrillas and Chechen politicos. Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus serves as an excellent source for gaining an understanding into the Chechen conflict.

A stunning account of Russia's defeat at the hands of Chechen warriors, which traces the superpower's own incompetence, disorganization, and lack of understanding of it's enemy. A brillient consideration of war strategies and morals, as well as an account of the dissintigration of the Soviet Union

I was thinking of giving this book four stars because it is outdated (the book published in 1998, but probably written before April 1997, as the epilogue indicates), but I can't hold this against the book. All books become outdated at one point.

In any event, I've given it five stars largely because of its inside account. I love the fact that the authors were on the ground, seeing things with their own eyes. They also met Dudayev, Basayev, and other critical characters. Their quoting of these people made the book much more enjoyable because they present the views of integral figures (on both the Russian and Chechen sides).

It does start out slow with coverage on the history of the Chechens. Some people may not be interested in what a teip is. If you don't care, skip to the parts on the conflict.

The book is very lively. It covers almost every drop of a bomb or attack from a first person perspective, though, realistically, it couldn't have all been first person. It is very detailed and the gruesome nature of war is well covered.

If you're interested in the first war in Chechnya everything's here including the holocaust against the Chechen people. It ends in 1998 before Putin's KGB war and the Chechens' descent into terrorism. If your pro-Russian this book is not for you. The writers are not pro-Yeltsin either. (Who is? He was just a drunk.)