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The Chechen Wars Part II: The Wolf Feast
🕑 Added 2025-01-21 18:00:01 +0000 UTCBy the late 80s, the winding down of Soviet repressions breathed new life into Chechen separatism. They remained in the shadows, hiding behind clubs and movements, and timed their strike exceedingly well – by allying with the Yeltsin coup in 1991, they bought themselves time & goodwill.
What followed was not just a nightmare, but a national humiliation: hundreds of thousands of Russians ethnically cleansed from their homes; tens of thousands murdered, raped or enslaved. Government officials making deals with terrorists, dozens of Soviet weapon depots surrendered to separatists without a fight. Chechnya turned into a vicious tumor of crime & violence, threatening the entire Russian South.
Dudayev ruled Chechnya at gunpoint, but even the alpha wolf, a former Soviet General, could not reign in the myriad of gangs and warlords that were seizing their piece of the pie. The Russian government was indulging in crippling apathy – the oil kept flowing, shady deals made at the highest levels prevented anything from being done, all while thousands upon thousands of refugees fled Chechnya with nothing but the clothes on their back.
Part 2 of our Chechen Wars series tells the story of the blackest depths of modern Russia, our national disgrace, our forgotten martyrs. The Yeltsin regime tolerated Dudayev’s reign of terror until it couldn’t anymore – not because of any humanitarian or patriotic feeling, but because they “loved Russia” as a resource to exploit, and the pie shouldn’t get any smaller.
By the end of 1994, the Russian Army, collapsing of rot and bled dry by budget cuts, embarked on their desperate mission, never knowing whether there were more enemies at the front or in the rear…
00:00:00 - Chechen history recap
00:04:00 - 1989 and the Chechen opposition movements
00:17:10 - Dzhokhar Dudaev
00:26:00 - 1991 August coup. Galkovsky analysis
00:43:23 - Dudaev's Ichkeria. Fake avizzo scheme
00:52:00 - A quest for weapons
00:59:30 - Slavery and genocide
01:17:40 - Internal opposition to Dudaev
01:28:00 - Russian military preparations for the offensive
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Secret chat: https://t.me/+wYU_CUVU8zg0YzJi
Comments
david fenton
USAID/NED funding dried up.
EJK
What's going on, guys? Lots of stuff happening. We're all waiting. 🐶🐶
ap14015
Thank you for this episode! I could hear your souls dying as you were recounting the events, so I appreciate it wasn’t easy. I’m guessing the next episode won’t be easy either. You’re probably going to need Niccolo Soldo’s dark Balkan humour to pull through.
Auston Mills
Great stuff
Andrew Martiniuc
🤣🤣🤣 why you have to say that
Andrew Martiniuc
Yeah.. with these guys you have to be patient and let them educate you so you understand something with far more depth.
Bill Daly
2 episodes in and the first Chechen war is not started! But that depth of context and background is what makes RWA such an invaluable resource. Great series. And spot on about Wikipedia - a disgraceful exercise in disinformation there
Robert D
Thanks for the reply.
Russians With Attitude
Thank you. Had no idea, honestly.
Russians With Attitude
A spam attack, have to up the security.
Robert D
Hi. What happened to your X and Telegram accounts?
Larry Cloetta
RWA: You guys are the best, and English speakers (well, some of us) are grateful for the content you bring us that is unavailable to us elsewhere. One gentle and very small suggestion: In the word “bombing” the “b” is completely silent, there is no hint of the “b” in spoken English. Another quirk of the language. It’s just pronounced “bomming”, and bomb is just pronounced “bom”. It’s as stupid as U.S. foreign policy with regard to Russia, but it is what it is. Spasiba for all you do.
Andrew Martiniuc
The disenfranchisement of russians agers me to no end.
Andrew Martiniuc
Based.
Andrew Martiniuc
They are always involved.
MP
Merci very interesting perspective
spetsnaz
How was the CIA involved? I am surprised that you didn’t mention that CIA flooded Chechnya with Al qaeda from Bosnia which CIA also was secretly destabilising with Al qaeda imports
spetsnaz
My god maybe it’s better to just entirely cleanse the whole region and resettle with settlers from Moscow and Tula?
spetsnaz
Amazing, most important podcast of the year. Really looking forward to listening this
brrrskrrrt
RWN had a great (and infuriating) series on the Chechen wars as well, not to mention Ames' 'Ghosts of the Caucasus' article series on the events of that time. Whatever happened to getting Ames on the show, by the way?
Maria Land
How embarrassing! Sorry, Kirill :))
Russians With Attitude
Thank you! but it's Kirill :)
Maria Land
Konstantin and Nikolai, many thanks for the episode. It is breathtaking. I am so grateful for the great job you do. Can't wait for the next one. Lots of love :))
Rasmus
This is a very intresting topic. I’m looking forward to hearing more about the combat operations in Chechnya during the 90s since I’ve always felt that so much was hidden away from me as a Swede🤔 It was always described here as “Incompetence” but still clearing an Urban center as Grozny and then proceeding with a guerrilla war in the lowlands still took a lot of ground level competence. Even if it must have been hell for all involved… Sorry for the rant😅 Looking forward to the next episode! Thank you!
Marko
Spaisibo for this series, I followed it extensively when I was a child and it was happening. Very difficult to get any balanced view of the timeline and events as they unfolded. Love your work brats.
Max
Greetings from America. I hope that one day soon Putin will declare the Black Sea "Gulf of Russia. Then we can all be friends and have jointly developed pro wrestling melodrama together.
Garry H
Thank You RWA (Nikolay and Kirill) for your Hardwork and efforts!!.. Looking forward to listen to part 2 of this series!!..
