HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 113

the Chechens were forced to join collective farms
and suffered religious persecution. A territorial
reorganization led to the formation of the
Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic in 1936.
World War II brought massive changes to the
Chechen lands. In February 1944 the Chechen
and Ingush were deported en masse to inhos-
pitable lands in Central Asia as punishment for
their alleged collaboration with Nazi German
occupation forces. The Soviet government abol-
ished the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Repub-
lic, and the Chechen and Ingush lived in internal
exile until January 1957, when the republic was
restored. The bitter experience of exile shaped
generations of future Chechen leaders. In late
1991, at a time when the Soviet Union was
beginning to unravel, Dzhokhar Dudaev, a Soviet
army general of Chechen background, expelled
the Communist government in Grozny, the
Chechen capital. Elected president in October,
Dudaev declared Chechnya an independent
republic in November 1991. The Russian Federa-
tion that succeeded the USSR after December
1991 refused to recognize Chechnya's indepen-
dence. In December 1994, Russian President
Boris YELTSIN authorized an invasion of Chechnya
by Russian troops. After bloody fighting that saw
the almost complete destruction of Grozny, the
Russians entered the capital in February 1995.
The Chechens turned to guerrilla warfare, but
after Dudaev was killed in a rocket attack in April
1996, both sides were willing to work toward a
negotiated agreement signed in August 1996, in
which they agreed to postpone a decision on
Chechnya's status until 2001. After a wave of
spectacular terrorist attacks by Chechen dissi-
dents during 1999, Russian forces again moved
into Chechnya in September 1999, beginning a
second war that has shown no sign of abating.

Anton Chekhov (Hulton/Archive)

figures of Russian and world literature in the
second half of the 19th century. The grandson of
a serf and the son of a grocer, Anton Chekhov
was born in Taganrog, a port on the Sea of Azov,
an inlet of the Black Sea. He lived in Taganrog
until 1879, when he left for Moscow to rejoin
his family and begin medical studies at Moscow
University. Always in financial straits, he sup-
ported himself and his family by tutoring and
writing humorous sketches for publication. Of
greater historical than literary value, these
sketches helped Chekhov refine his skills as a
short story writer. After graduation in 1884, he
increasingly turned to writing, although he
never completely abandoned medicine, which
he practiced until 1892. His sketches attracted
the attention of a prominent St. Petersburg pub-
lisher who encouraged him to devote himself to
writing as a career. In 1888, he won the presti-
gious Pushkin Prize for literature awarded by the

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich
(1860-1904)
writer and playwright
A writer known for his subtle, well-crafted plays
and short stories, Chekhov stands with DOSTO -
EVSKY , TURGENEV , and TOLSTOY as one of the great