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Dzhokhar Dudayev
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dzhokhar Dudayev Дудин Муса кант Жовхар |
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| In office November 9, 1991 – April 21, 1996 |
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| Vice President(s) | Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev |
| Succeeded by | Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev |
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| Born | April 15, 1944 Yalkhori, Soviet Union |
| Died | April 21, 1996 Gekhi-Chu, Chechnya |
| Nationality | Chechen |
| Political party | All-National Congress of the Chechen People |
| Spouse | Alla Dudayeva |
Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev (Chechen: Dƶovxar Dudayev; Cyrillic: Дудин Муса кант Жовхар, Russian: Джохар Мусаевич Дудаев) (February 1944 – April 21, 1996) was a Soviet Air Force general and a Chechen leader, the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, an unrecognized breakaway state in the North Caucasus.
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Dudayev was born in February 1944, during the enforced deportation of his family (together with the entire Chechen, Ingush, Balkar, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatar and other smaller nations, on the orders of Joseph Stalin) from their native village of Yalkhoroi in the abolished Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. He spent the first 13 years of his life in the internal exile in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.
Following the 1957 repatriation of the Chechens and Ingush, he studied at evening school in Checheno-Ingushetia and qualified as an electrician. He entered flying school and graduated from the Tambov Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots in 1966. It is alleged he officially misrepresented his ethnicity as Ossetian in order to sidestep discrimination against the Chechen people. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1968 and studied at the Gagarin Air Force Academy (1971-74).
Dudayev served in a heavy bomber unit of the Soviet Air Force in Siberia and Ukraine and also took part in the Soviet war in Afghanistan.[1] He rose steadily in the Air Force, assuming command of the air base of the Soviet Strategic Air Force at Tartu, Estonia, in 1987 with the rank of Major-General. Dudayev learned Estonian and showed great tolerance for Estonian nationalism when he ignored Soviet orders to shut down the Estonian television and parliament.
In 1990 his air division was withdrawn from Estonia. Dudayev resigned from the Soviet military and in May 1990 returned to Grozny, the Chechen capital, to devote himself to local politics.
In November 1990 Dudayev was elected head of the Executive Committee of the unofficial opposition All-National Congress of the Chechen People, which advocated sovereignty for Chechnya as a separate republic of the Soviet Union (Chechen-Ingush ASSR had status of the autonomous republic of the Russian SSR).
In August 1991 Doku Zavgayev, the Communist leader of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, publicly expressed his support for the Moscow putsch against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Following the failure of the putsch, the Soviet Union began to disintegrate rapidly as the constituent republics took moves to leave the beleaguered Soviet Union. Taking advantage of the Soviet Union's implosion, Dudayev and his supporters acted against the Zavgayev's administration. On September 6, 1991, militants of the All-National Congress of Chechen People (NCChP), headed by Dudayev, stormed a session of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR Supreme Soviet, effectively dissolving the government of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR.
After a controversional referendum in October 1991 confirmed Dudayev in his new position as president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, he unilaterally declared the republic's sovereignty and its secession from Russia. In November 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin dispatched troops to Grozny, but they were withdrawn when Dudayev's forces prevented them from leaving the airport. Russia refused to recognize the republic's independence, but hesitated to use further force against the secessionists. From this point the Chechen-Ingush Republic had become a de facto independent state.
Initially Dudayev's government held diplomatic relations with Georgia where he received much moral support from the first Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia. When Gamsakhurdia was overthrown in late 1991, he was given asylum in Chechnya and attended Dudayev's inauguration as President. While he resided in Grozny he also helped to organise the first "All-Caucasian Conference" which was attended by independentist groups from across the region. Ichkeria never received diplomatic recognition from any internationally recognised state other than Georgia in 1991.
The Chechen-Ingush Republic split in two in June 1992, amidst the increasing Ossetian-Ingush conflict. After Chechnya had announced its initial declaration of sovereignty in 1991 its entity Ingushetia opted to join the Russian Federation as the federal subject (Republic of Ingushetia). The remaining rump state of Ichkeria (Chechnya) declared full independence in 1993. Same year the Russian language stopped being taught in Chechen schools and it was also announced that the Chechen language would start to be written using the Latin alphabet (with some additional special Chechen characters) rather than the Cyrillic alphabet that had been imposed on the Chechen people during the 1930s. The state also began to print its own money and stamps.
Dudayev's pro-independence policies soon began to undermine Chechnya's economy and, Russian observers claimed, allegedly transformed the region into a criminal paradise. The non-Chechen population of Ichkeria was left the republic due to criminal elements and faced with indifferent government.[2] In 1993 the Chechen parliament attempted to organize a referendum on public confidence in Dudayev on the grounds that he had failed to consolidate Chechnya's independence. He retaliated by dissolving parliament and other organs of power. Beginning in early summer 1994 armed Chechen opposition groups with Russian military and financial backing tried repeatedly but without success to depose Dudayev by force.
On December 1, 1994 the Russians began bombing Grozny airport and destroyed the Chechen Airforce (former Soviet training aircraft requisitioned by the republic in 1991). In response Ichkeria declared war on Russia and mobilised its armed forces. On December 11, 1994, five days after Dudayev and Minister of Defense Pavel Grachev of Russia had agreed to avoid the further use of force, Russian troops invaded Chechnya.
Before the fall of Grozny, Dudayev moved south with his forces and continued leading the war throughout 1995, reportedly from a missile silo close to the historic Chechen capital of Vedeno. He continued to insist that his forces would prevail after the conventional warfare had finished, and the Chechen guerrilla fighters continued to operate across the entire country picking off Russian units and demoralising their soldiers. A Jihad was declared on Russia by the Mufti of Ichkeria, Akhmad Kadyrov, and foreign volunteers began pouring into the republic, mostly from neighbouring North Caucasian Muslim republics such as Dagestan.
President Dudayev was killed on April 21, 1996, by two laser-guided missiles when he was using a satellite phone, after his location was detected by a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which intercepted his phone call. Despite America's ban on assassinations, it is suspected the NSA was involved in the assassination by providing one of their SIGINT satellites to assist in the triangulation. [1] At the time Dudayev was reportedly talking to a liberal deputy of the Duma in Moscow, reportedly Konstantin Borovoy. Additional aircraft were dispatched (a Su-24MR and a Su-25) to locate Dudayev and fire a guided missile. Exact details of this operation were never released by the Russian government. However, it is known that Russian reconnaissance planes in the area had been monitoring satellite communications for quite some time trying to match Dudayev's voice signature to the existing samples of his speech.
Dudayev was succeeded by Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev (as acting President) and then, after the 1997 popular elections, by Aslan Maskhadov.
- A large room in the Barclay Hotel in Tartu, once used as Dudayev's office, is now called the "Dudayev Suite" in his honour.
- After his death, various locations in Turkey were renamed after him, such as Cevher Dudayev Meydanı (Dzhokhar Dudayev Square) in Ankara and Şehit Cevher Dudayev Parkı (Martyr Dzhokhar Dudayev Park) in Adapazarı, Sakarya. http://www.kayserigundem.com/haber_detaylari.asp?id=1873
- Also in 1996 a street in Lviv was named after him (вулиця Джохара Дудаєва), later followed by Ivano-Frankivsk and Kyiv in Ukraine.
- Chechnya's war-ravaged capital has been called Dzhokhar-Ghala (later Jokhar) by separatists. Its official name remains as Grozny.[3]
- In Gorazde, Bosnia and Herzegovina, street of Ulica Generala Dzohara Dudajeva.
- 1994-1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica
| Preceded by Declaration of Republic |
President of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria 1991–1996 |
Succeeded by Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev |
| Main events | Specific articles | Federals | Separatists |
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Wars Notable battles Other
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Second Chechen War |
Combatants:
Key leaders : |
Combatants: Key leaders:
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