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The Chechens ( ; (2025). 9780550101051, Chambers. ISBN 9780550101051 , , Old Chechen: Нахчой, Naxçoy), historically also known as Kistin and Durdzuks, are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus. (1999). 9780792275282, National Geographic. ISBN 9780792275282 "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles." They are the largest ethnic group in the region and refer to themselves as Nokhchiy (; singular Nokhchi, Nokhcho, Nakhchuo or Nakhche). The vast majority of Chechens are Muslims and live in Chechnya, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation.
The North Caucasus has been invaded numerous times throughout history. Its isolated terrain and the strategic value outsiders have placed on the areas settled by Chechens has contributed much to the Chechen community ethos and helped shape its national character.
Chechen society is largely Egalitarianism and organized around tribal autonomous local clans, called , informally organized into loose confederations called .
The name "Chechens" is an exoethnonym that entered the Georgian and Western European ethnonymic tradition through the Russian language in the 18th century.
From the middle of the 19th century to the first few years of the Soviet Union, some researchers united all Chechens and Ingush under the name "Chechens". In modern science, another term is used for this community — "the Nakh peoples".
The discussion of their origins is intertwined with the discussion of the mysterious origins of Nakh peoples as a whole. The only three surviving Nakh peoples are Chechens, Ingush people and Bats people, but they are thought by some scholars to be the remnants of what was once a larger family of peoples.
They are thought to be descended from the original settlers of the Caucasus (North and/or South).
Georgian historian Giorgi Melikishvili posited that although there was evidence of Nakh settlement in the Southern Caucasus areas, this did not rule out the possibility that they also lived in the North Caucasus.Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Page 24. "Also, the Georgian historian G. A. Melikishvili maintained that the formation of the Vainakh took place much earlier than the first century BC. Though evidence of Nakh settlement was found on the southern slopes of the Caucasus in the second and first millennia BC, he did not rule out the possibility of their residence in the northern and eastern regions of the Caucasus. It is traditionally accepted that the Vainakh have existed in the Caucasus, with their present territory as a nucleus of a larger domicile, for thousands of years, and that it was the ‘birthplace’ of their ethnos, to which the peoples who inhabited the Central Caucasus and the steppe lands all the way to the Volga in the northeast and the Caspian Sea to the east contributed."
The state of Durdzuketi has been recorded since the 4th century BC. The Armenian Chronicles mention that the Durdzuks defeated the Scythians and became a significant power in the region in the first millennium BC.
The Vainakh in the east had an affinity with Georgia, while the Malkh of the west looked to the new Greek kingdom of Bosporan Kingdom on the Black Sea coast (though it may have also had relations with Georgia). According to legend, Adermakhus, chief of the Malkh state, married the daughter of the Bosporan king in 480 BCE. Malkhi is one of the Chechen .Крупнов Е. И. Древности Чечено-Ингушетии. — Изд-во Академии наук СССР, 1963. — с. 256Натаев Сайпуди Альвиевич. ПРОБЛЕМА ЭТНОТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНОЙ СТРУКТУРЫ ЧЕЧНИ В XVIII–XIX ВВ. В ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ.Марковин В. И. «В ущельях Аргуна и Фортанги». Москва, 1965 — с. 71Мамакаев М. «Чеченский тайп в период его разложения». Грозный, 1973.Шавхелишвили А. И. «Грузино-чечено-ингушские взаимоотношения». Тбилиси, 1992. — с.65, 72Пиотровский Б. Б. История народов Северного Кавказа с древнейших времен до конца XVIII в. — Наука, 1988. — с.239Н. Г. Волкова. Этнический состав населения Северного Кавказа в XVIII-начале XX века — Москва: Наука, 1974. — с.169
According to the missionary Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, a part of the Alans had successfully resisted a Mongol siege on a mountain for 12 years:
This twelve-year-old siege is not found in any other report, however, the Russian historian A. I. Krasnov connected this battle with two Chechen folktales he recorded in 1967 that spoke of an old hunter named Idig who with his companions defended the Tebulosmta mountain for 12 years against Tatar-Mongols. He also reported to have found several arrowheads and spears from the 13th century near the very mountain the battle took place at:
Tamerlane's late 14th-century invasions of the Caucasus were especially costly to the Chechen kingdom of Simsir which was an ally of the Golden Horde and anti-Timurid. Its leader Khour Ela supported Khan Tokhtamysh during the Battle of the Terek River. The Chechens bear the distinction of being one of the few peoples to successfully resist the Mongols and defend themselves against their invasions; not once, but twice, though this came at great cost to them, as their states were utterly destroyed. These events were key in the shaping of the Chechen nationhood and their martial-oriented and clan-based society.
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, Russia embarked on full-scale conquest of the North Caucasus in the Caucasian War. Much of the campaign was led by General Yermolov who particularly disliked the Chechens, describing them as "a bold and dangerous people".Dunlop p.14 Angered by Chechen raids, Yermolov resorted to a brutal policy of "scorched earth" and deportations; he also founded the fort of Grozny (now the capital of Chechnya) in 1818. Chechen resistance to Russian rule reached its peak under the leadership of the Dagestani leader Imam Shamil. The Chechens were finally defeated in 1861 after a bloody war that lasted for decades, during which they lost most of their entire population.Jaimoukha (p.50): "The Chechens suffered horrific losses in human life during the long war. From an estimated population of over a million in the 1840s, there were only 140,000 Chechens left in the Caucasus in 1861..." In the aftermath, large numbers of refugees also emigrated or were forcibly deported to the Ottoman Empire. by Johanna Nichols, University of California, Berkeley.Dunlop p.29ff. Dunlop writes (p.30): "In 1860, according to Soviet-era figures, 81,360 Chechens left for Turkey; a second emigration took place in 1865, when an additional 22,500 Chechens left. More than 100,000 Chechens were thus ethnically 'cleansed' during this process. This was perhaps a majority of their total population..."Jaimoukha p.50
Most Chechens living in their homeland can understand Ingush with ease. The two languages are not truly mutually intelligible, but it is easy for Chechens to learn how to understand the Ingush language and vice versa over time after hearing it for a while.
In 1989, 73.4% spoke Russian,Mikhailov, Valentin. Chechnya and Tatarstan though this figure has declined due to the wars for a large number of reasons (including the lack of proper education, the refusal to learn the language, and the mass dispersal of the Chechen diaspora due to the war). Chechens in Chechen diaspora often speak the language of the country they live in (English language, French language, German language, Arabic language, Polish language, Georgian, Turkish language, etc.).
The Nakh languages are a subgroup of Northeast Caucasian, and as such are related to Nakho-Dagestanian family, including the languages of the Caucasian Avars, Dargins, Lezghins, Laks, Rutul people, etc. However, this relationship is not a close one: the Nakho-Dagestanian family is of comparable or greater time-depth than Indo-European, meaning Chechens are only as linguistically related to Avars or Dargins as the French people are to the Russians or Iranian peoples.
Some researchers suggest a linguistic relationship between the Nakh-Dagestani languages and the Urarto-Hurrians.
Other scholars, however, doubt that the language families are related,Johanna Nichols (January 2003). "The Nakh Dagestanian consonant correspondences". In Dee Ann Holisky; Kevin Tuite (eds.). Current Trends in Caucasian, East European, and Inner Asian Linguistics: Papers in Honor of Howard I. Aronson. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 208. . or believe that, while a connection is possible, the evidence is far from conclusive.Kallio, Petri. "XXI. Beyond Indo-European". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthew (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 2285–2286. Uralicist and Indo-Europeanist Petri Kallio argues that the matter is hindered by the lack of consensus about how to reconstruct Proto-Northeast-Caucasian, but that Alarodian is the most promising proposal for relations with Northeast Caucasian, greater than rival proposals to link it with Northwest Caucasian or other families. However, nothing is known about Alarodians except that they "were armed like the Colchians and Saspeires," according to Herodotus. Colchians and Saspeires are generally associated with Kartvelians or Scythians. Additionally, leading Urartologist Paul Zimansky rejected a connection between Urartians and Alarodians.Zimansky, Paul "Urartian and Urartians." The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia (2011): 556. [1]
A 2004 study of the mtDNA showed Chechens to be diverse in the mitochondrial genome, with 18 different haplogroups out of only 23 samples. This correlates with all other North Caucasian peoples such as the Ingush people, Avars, and Circassians where the mitochondrial DNA is very diverse.I. Nasidze, E. Y. S. Ling, D. Quinque et al., " Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome Variation in the Caucasus ," Annals of Human Genetics (2004) 68, 205–221.
The most recent study on Chechens, by Balanovsky et al. in 2011,Oleg Balanovsky et al., "Parallel Evolution of Genes and Languages in the Caucasus Region," Molecular Biology and Evolution 2011 sampled a total of 330 Chechens from three sample locations (one in Malgobek, one in Achkhoy-Martan, and one from two sites in Dagestan) and found the following frequencies: A weak majority of Chechens belong to Haplogroup J2 (56.7%), which is associated with Mediterranean, Caucasian and Fertile Crescent populations. Other notable values were found among North Caucasian Turkic peoples (Kumyks (25%)Yunusbaev 2006 and Balkars (24%)). It is notable that J2 suddenly collapses as one enters the territory of non-Nakh Northeast Caucasian peoples, dropping to very low values among Dagestani peoples.Yunusbaev 2006.Caciagli et al, 2009. The key role of patrilineal inheritance in the genetic variation of Dagestani highlanders. The overwhelming bulk of Chechen J2 is of the subclade J2a4b* (J2-M67), of which the highest frequencies by far are found among Nakh peoples: Chechens were 55.2% according to the Balanovsky study, while Ingush were 87.4%. Other notable haplogroups that consistently appeared at high frequencies included J1 (20.9%), L (7.0%), G2 (5.5%), R1a (3.9%), Q-M242 (3%) and R1b-M269 (1.8%, but much higher in Chechnya itself as opposed to Dagestani or Ingushetian Chechens). Overall, tests have shown consistently that Chechens are most closely related to Ingush, Circassians and other North Caucasians, occasionally showing a kinship to other peoples in some tests. Balanovsky's study showed the Ingush to be the Chechens' closest relatives by far.Nasidze et al. "Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome Variation in the Caucasus", Annals of Human Genetics (2004)
Russian military historian and Lieutenant General Vasily Potto describes the appearance of the Chechens as follows: "The Chechen is handsome and strong. Tall, brunette, slender, with sharp features and a quick, determined look, he amazes with his mobility, agility, dexterity."
According to a 2021 Rosstat study Chechnya ranked as the tallest region in Russia for men (179.1 cm) and second tallest for women (168.2).
Chechens are accustomed to democratic ways, their social structure being firmly based on equality, pluralism and deference to individuality. Chechen society is structured around (unions of ) and about 130 teips, or clans. The teips are based more on land and one-side lineage than on blood (as exogamy is prevalent and encouraged), and are bonded together to form the Chechen nation. Teips are further subdivided into gar (branches), and gars into nekye (patronymic families). The Chechen social code is called nokhchallah (where Nokhchuo stands for "Chechen") and may be loosely translated as "Chechen character". The Chechen code of Honour and customary law (adat) implies moral and ethical behaviour, generosity and the will to safeguard the honor of women. The traditional Chechen saying goes that the members of Chechen society, like its teips, are (ideally) "free and equal like wolves".Jaimoukha. Chechens. Page 83Gammer, Moshe. The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule. London 2006. Page 4
Chechens have a strong sense of community, which is enforced by the old clan network and nokhchalla – the obligation to clan, tukkhum, etc. This is often combined with old values transmuted into a modern sense. They are mythically descended from the epic hero, Turpalo-Nokhchuo ("Chechen Hero"). There is a strong theme of representing the nation with its national animal, the Chechen wolf. Due to their strong dependence on the land, its farms and its forests (and indeed, the national equation with the wolf), Chechens have a strong affection for nature. According to Chechen philosopher Apty Bisultanov, ruining an ant-hill or hunting Caucasian goats during their mating season was considered extremely sinful. The glasnost era Chechen independence movement Bart (unity) originated as a simple environmentalist organization in the republic's capital of Grozny.Wood, Tony. Chechnya: The Case for Independence. Page 46
Chechen culture strongly values freedom. This asserts itself in multiple ways. A large majority of the nation's Folk hero fought for independence (or otherwise, like the legendary Zelimkhan, robbed from the Russian oppressors in order to feed Chechen children in a Robin Hood-like fashion). A common greeting in the Chechen language, marsha oylla, is literally translated as "enter in freedom". The word for freedom also encompasses notions of peace and prosperity.
A stereotype of an average Chechen being a fundamentalist Muslim is incorrect and misleading., by Brian Glyn Williams, The Jamestown Foundation, October 2, 2003Wood, Tony. Chechnya: the Case for Independence. pp. 127–145. By the late 2000s, however, two new trends have emerged in Chechnya. A radicalized remnant of the armed Chechen separatist movement has become dominated by Salafi movement (popularly known in Russia as Wahhabi movement and present in Chechnya in small numbers since the 1990s), mostly abandoning nationalism in favor of Pan-Islamism and merging with several other regional Islamic insurgencies to form the Caucasus Emirate. At the same time, Chechnya under Moscow-backed authoritarian rule of Ramzan Kadyrov has undergone its own controversial counter-campaign of Islamization of the republic, with the government and the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of the Chechen Republic actively promoting and enforcing their own version of a so-called "traditional Islam", including introducing elements of Sharia that replaced Russian official laws.
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