The lone wolf and the bear : three centuries of Chechen defiance of Russian rule

"The two Russo-Chechen wars (1994-6 and 1999-onwards) have brought the country and its people to the centre of world attention, most recently when separatists stormed a Moscow theatre, taking hundreds of people hostage. This book takes a different approach from most studies published on Chechnya, arguing that fully to grasp the significance and meaning of recent events one has to study them from a long historical perspective. Since Chechen nationalists regard the wars of the 1990s onwards as part of a 'three hundred year long war' between them and Russia, The Lone Wolf and the Bear takes the Russo-Chechen confrontation back to Moscow's first attempts to expand into the Caucasus in the sixteenth century. While concentrating on the Chechen struggle, its evolution and many causes, the book also tracks change within Chechen society following contact with Russia, the various and unexpected forms of modernisation, Russification and Sovietisation, the way these moulded Chechen self-perceptions and the nature of their struggle and its contribution to Chechen defiance of Russian power. Dr Moshe Gammer is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Middle Eastern and African History, Tel Aviv University. He is the author of Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnya and Daghestan (London, 1994) and of many articles on the history and current events of the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East."--Site Web "The Hurst Publishers" The Lone Wolf and the Bear examines the Russo-Chechen conflict, from early Russian expansion into the Caucasus in the sixteenth century to the current war between Russia and Chechnya. Moshe Gammer offers a comprehensive study of modern Chechen history, its people and cultures, and the factors of Russo/Soviet influence and modernization that have molded Chechen self-perception and enflamed the passions of separatism. Perhaps the most ethnically diverse region in the world, Chechnya claims over seventy native groups, yet it is unified in its opposition to Russian control and the quest for nationhood. Through difficult research (many historic documents on Chechnya have been destroyed by Russian authorities, and Chechen documentation is scarce), Gammer assembles the stories of a fiercely independent people and their three-hundred-year struggle against domination by the world power of Russia, a conflict that continues today. In The Lone Wolf and the Bear Moshe Gammer examines the age-old Russo-Chechen conflict, from early Russian southward expansion in the 16th century, through the war of conquest launched in the early 19th century, and the massacres that resulted, of which Leo Tolstoy wrote on the basis of his experiences there as an army officer, to the current war between post-Soviet Russia and Chechnya. The author offers a comprehensive exposition of modern Chechen history, its people and culture, and of how Russo/Soviet influence and modernization have shaped Chechen self-perception and fanned the passions of separatism. Situated at the heart of the most ethnically diverse region in the world - the Caucasus claims over seventy native groups - the Chechens continue through armed resistance to defy a world power and preserve their distinctive identity