Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus

Carlotta Gall

Thomas de Waal

Gerald Horne

" 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."

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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.