Aslan Maskhadov: biography, history and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Maskhadov Aslan Alievich is one of the most controversial personalities of modern history. Some people consider him a hero of the Chechen people, others consider him a terrorist. Who really was Aslan Maskhadov? The biography of this historical figure will be the subject of our study.

Childhood and youth

Maskhadov Aslan Alievich was born in the autumn of 1951 in a small village on the territory of the Kazakh SSR, where his parents were once deported. His family came from Alleroy teip.

In 1957, with the beginning of the thaw, the deported Chechens were rehabilitated. This allowed Aslan and his parents to return to the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. There they lived in one of the villages of the Nadterchensky district.

In 1966, Aslan Maskhadov joined the Komsomol, and two years later he completed his studies at the secondary school of his village. In 1972 he graduated from a military school in Tbilisi, which specialized in the production of personnel for artillery. After that, for five years he served in the army in the Far East, where he rose to the position of deputy division commander. In the sametime he was accepted into the ranks of the CPSU.

In 1981, having shown excellent results in his studies, he graduated from the Military Artillery Academy, located in Leningrad.

After graduation, he was sent to Hungary, where he rose to the rank of commander of an artillery regiment.

At the turn of the eras

In 1986 Aslan Maskhadov was sent to Lithuania as a regiment commander and with the rank of colonel. During the time of his command of the unit, she was repeatedly recognized as the best in the B altics. He himself was appointed Chief of Staff of the Missile Forces.

At that time, processes were taking place in the country that in the near future led to the collapse of the USSR and a change in the social system. Before other republics, centrifugal tendencies began to manifest themselves in the B altic states. However, before active protests and the use of armed forces against them began, Maskhadov was recalled, although part of him took part in actions against the rebels.

In 1992, he resigned from the Russian Armed Forces. Some experts believe that this decision was primarily dictated by his disagreements with the top military authorities, others - by the aggravation on the Chechen-Ingush border.

First Chechen

After his resignation Aslan Maskhadov went to the capital of Chechnya - Grozny. There, at that time, Dzhokhar Dudayev had already come to power, proclaiming an independent Ichkeria (CRI). Immediately upon arrival, Maskhadov was appointed chief of the Civil Defense, and then chief of staff of the armed forces.

Since 1994, the so-called First Chechen War began. Aslan Maskhadov successfully led the defense of Grozny, for which he received the rank of divisional general from Dudayev. After that, under his leadership, a number of more successful operations were carried out, in particular, the capture of Grozny after the city was occupied by Russian troops.

In Russia, a criminal case was opened against Maskhadov as the creator of an illegal armed group, which, however, did not prevent him from negotiating with the Russian authorities.

In 1996, during a special operation, Dzhokhar Dudayev was killed, but this did not prevent the successful actions of Chechen fighters against the Russian army.

In 1996, agreements were reached between the government of the Russian Federation and representatives of the self-proclaimed Ichkeria. The signing of peace agreements took place in the Dagestan city of Khasavyurt. Aslan Alievich Maskhadov signed the agreement on behalf of the CRI. The history of the Chechen conflict, it would seem, was over. These agreements envisaged the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Chechnya, an agreement on the election of a new president of Ichkeria, as well as a postponement of the issue of deciding the future fate of the CRI status until 2001. Thus ended the First Chechen War.

Presidential office

After the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements before the presidential elections and. about. President of CRI was Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Aslan Maskhadov became prime minister and defense minister at the same time.

In January 1997, presidential elections were held, in which the victory waswon by Aslan Maskhadov, ahead of Shamil Basayev and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.

Initially, Maskhadov tried to build an independent Chechen state on the democratic principles of civil society. But his position was too weak. On the contrary, Islamic extremists, field commanders and leaders of various bandit formations began to gain more and more power in Chechnya.

Maskhadov by and large was not a politician, but a military man. He was forced to maneuver between these groups, to make concessions to them. This led to further radicalization, Islamization and criminalization of Chechen society. Sharia law was introduced in CRI, the republic was flooded with foreign extremists, field commanders began to show more and more disobedience to the government of Ichkeria.

Second Chechen

The result of this situation was that in 1999 field commanders Shamil Basayev and Khattab arbitrarily, without the sanctions of the president and government of the CRI, invaded the territory of Dagestan. Thus began the Second Chechen War.

Although Maskhadov publicly condemned the actions of Basayev, Khattab and other field commanders, he could not really control them. Therefore, the leadership of Russia, after having knocked out the militants from the territory of Dagestan, decided to carry out an operation to completely destroy them on the territory of Chechnya.

The entry of Russian troops into the territory of the CRI led to a direct confrontation between Maskhadov and the government of the Russian Federation. He began to lead the resistance. The President of Ichkeria was announced first in the All-Russian, and then ininternational search. At first, Maskhadov could directly lead only a relatively small detachment, since most of the field commanders were not actually subordinate to him, and only since 2002 was a general command formed. Thus, Basayev, Khattab and other leaders of the militants joined Maskhadov.

The actions of Russian troops on the territory of Chechnya this time were much more successful than in the first campaign. By the end of 2000, the Russian army controlled most of Chechnya. The militants were hiding in mountainous areas, staging terrorist attacks and sabotage.

Maskhadov's death

In order to finally destroy the terrorist hotbed in Chechnya, the Russian special services decided to conduct a series of operations to personally eliminate the leaders of the militants.

In March 2005, a special operation was carried out to detain the former leader of Ichkeria. During it, Aslan Maskhadov was killed. According to one version, he was shot dead by a bodyguard, as Maskhadov did not want to surrender alive.

Family

Maskhadov had a wife, a son and a daughter. Aslan Maskhadov's wife, Kusama Semieva, was a telephone operator before her marriage in 1972. After the death of her husband, she stayed abroad for a long time, until in 2016 she received permission to return to Chechnya.

The son of Aslan Maskhadov - Anzor - was born in 1979. Educated in Malaysia. He currently lives in Finland and is a sharp critic of the Russian authorities, in particular Ramzan Kadyrov.

Maskhadov's daughter Fatima was born in 1981. Like his brother, he currently lives in Finland.

Generalfeature

It is rather difficult to give an impartial characterization of such an ambiguous figure as Aslan Maskhadov. Some people idealize him too much, others demonize him. It should be noted that the majority of people personally acquainted with him characterize Maskhadov as an excellent officer, a man of honor. At the same time, he showed an inability to lead the state and was unable to subjugate the many different groups in Ichkeria to the central government, on the occasion of which he was often forced to go.

Currently, actions and pickets are being held in memory of Aslan Maskhadov, demanding that the Russian authorities hand over his body to his relatives. But so far they have not led to results.

Interesting facts

While studying at the academy in Leningrad, Aslan Maskhadov asked to be called Oleg, and in the documents he was listed as Oslan. In addition, classmates noted Maskhadov's complete lack of religiosity, and also the fact that he was not averse to skipping a cup, although Islam strictly forbade this.

According to colleagues, Maskhadov spoke sharply negatively about the declaration of independence of Lithuania, considering it separatism.

According to some information sources, the Russian special services were able to calculate the whereabouts of Maskhadov using the IMEI of a mobile phone.