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capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia
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Grozny (Russian: Грозный, IPA: [ˈgroznɨj]; Chechen: Соьлжа-ГӀала, romanised: Sölƶa-Ġala) is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2021 census, it had a population of 328,533, up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 census, but still less than the 399,688 recorded in the 1989 census prior to destruction of the city in two wars in Chechnya. It was previously known as Groznaya (until 1870).
In Russian, "Grozny" means "fearsome", "menacing", or "redoubtable", the same word as in Ivan Grozny (Ivan the Terrible). While the official name in Chechen is the same, informally the city is known as "Соьлжа-Гӏала" ("Sölƶa-Ġala"), which literally means "the city (гӏала) on the Sunzha River (Соьлжа)".
In 1997, the authorities of the Chechen republic of Ichkeria renamed the city Dzhokhar-Ghala (Chechen: Джохар-ГӀала, romanised: Dƶoxar-Ġala), literally Dzhokhar City, or Dzhokhar/Djohar for short, after Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first president of the republic, who was killed in the First Chechen War. In December 2005, the Chechen parliament voted to rename the city Akhmad-Ghala (Chechen: Ахмад-ГIала, romanised: Axmad-Ġala), after Akhmad Kadyrov) – a proposition which was rejected by his son Ramzan Kadyrov, the prime minister at the time and later president of the republic.
The fortress of Groznaya (Гро́зная; lit. fearsome – a feminine form of Grozny, as the word fortress, "крепость", is feminine in Russian) was founded in 1818 as a Russian military outpost on the Sunzha River by general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov. As the fort was being built, the workers were fired upon by the Chechens. The Russians found a solution by strategically positioning a cannon outside the city walls. When night fell and the Chechens came out of their hiding places to drag the gun away, all the other guns opened up with grapeshot. When the Chechens recovered their senses and began to carry away the bodies, the guns fired again. When it was over, 200 dead were counted. Thus did the "fearsome" fort receive its baptism of fire. It was a prominent defence centre during the Caucasian War.
Russian poets Alexander Griboedov, Alexander Polezhayev, Mikhail Lermontov, the classic of Russian literature Leo Tolstoy, the Decembrist and writer Alexander Bestuzhev and other famous figures of Russian culture visited the fortress. After the annexation of the region by the Russian Empire, the military use of the old fortress was obsolete and on 11 January 1870 [O.S. 30 December 1869] it was granted town status and renamed Grozny, as the word town, "город", is masculine in Russian. As most of the residents there were Terek Cossacks, the town grew slowly until the development of oil reserves in the early 20th century. The founder of the Nobel Prize, Alfred Nobel, took part in the development of the oil industry of the city of Grozny, as well as members of the Rothschild family. In addition to the Nobels and Rothschilds, British companies played an important role in the oil industry from 1893 onward. Alfred Stuart, an English engineer, completed the first well in Grozny by drilling in 1893 the largest oil field in the Caucasus region outside the Baku district.
Eleven firms drilled 116 wells before 1900. This encouraged the rapid development of industry and petrochemical production. In addition to the oil drilled in the city itself, the city became a geographical centre of Russia's network of oil fields, and in 1893 became part of the Transcaucasia–Russia-proper railway. The result was the population almost doubled from 15,600 in 1897 to 30,400 in 1913. In early 1914, the then largest oil company, Royal Dutch Shell, was established in the city thus making Grozny one of the largest industrial centres of the Caucasus. During the Russian Empire, the city was the administrative capital of the Groznensky Okrug of the Terek Oblast.
One day after the October Revolution, on 8 November 1917, the Bolsheviks headed by N. Anisimov seized Grozny. As the Russian Civil War escalated, the Proletariat formed the 12th Red Army, and the garrison held out against numerous attacks by Terek Cossacks from 11 August to 12 November 1918. However, with the arrival of Denikin's armies, the Bolsheviks were forced to withdraw and Grozny was captured on 4 February 1919, by the White Army. Underground operations were carried out, but only the arrival of the Caucasus front of the Red Army in 1920 allowed the city to permanently end up with the Russian SFSR on 17 March. Simultaneously it became part of the Soviet Mountain Republic, which was formed on 20 January 1921, and was the capital of the Chechen National Okrug inside it.
On 30 November 1922, the mountain republic was dissolved, and the national okrug became the Chechen Autonomous Oblast (Chechen AO) with Grozny as the administrative centre. At this time most of the population was still Russian, but of Cossack descent. As Cossacks were viewed as a potential threat to the Soviet nation, Moscow actively encouraged the migration of Chechens into the city from the mountains. In 1934 the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Oblast was formed, becoming the Chechen-Ingush ASSR in 1936.
Due to its oil, Grozny with Maykop were the main strategic objectives of the German Fall Blau operation in summer of 1942 (See Battle of the Caucasus).
The failure to take Grozny was a major defeat for Germany and was a factor in holding fast at the Battle of Stalingrad, as that city could have served as a base from which to take Grozny or cut off oil supplies up the Volga River from Astrakhan. The failure to prioritise Grozny, even transferring critical Panzer divisions north to the Siege of Leningrad, was a major factor in Adolf Hitler taking operational level control of the Wehrmacht from his generals who had repeatedly prioritised the two major cities over the oil supplies – against Hitler's express orders. Soviet doctrine however never failed to prioritise the food of Ukraine nor the oil of the Caucasus, which resulted in drastic action after Germany's expulsion/retreat in 1943.
In 1944, the entire population of Chechens and Ingush was deported after being falsely accused of collaborating with advancing armed forces of Nazi Germany. Large numbers of people who were not deemed fit for transport were "liquidated" on the spot, and the adverse situation with transport and the stay in Siberia caused many deaths as well. According to internal NKVD data, a total of 144,704 died in 1944–1948 alone (death rate of 23.5% per all groups). Authors such as Alexander Nekrich, John Dunlop and Moshe Gammer, based on census data from the period estimate a death toll of about 170,000–200,000 among Chechens alone, thus ranging from over a third of the total Chechen population that was deported to nearly half dying during those four years (rates for other groups for those four years hover around 20%). All traces of them in the city, including books and graveyards, were destroyed by the NKVD troops. The act was recognised by the European Parliament as an act of genocide in 2004.
Grozny became the administrative centre of Grozny Oblast of the Russian SFSR, and the city at the time was again wholly Russian. In 1957, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was restored, and the Chechens were allowed to return. The return of the Chechens to Grozny, which had been lacking of Nakh for thirteen years, would cause massive disruptions to the social, economic and political systems of what had been a Russian city for the period until their return. This caused a self-feeding cycle of ethnic conflict between the two groups, both believing the other's presence in the city was illegitimate. Once again migration of non-Russians into Grozny continued whilst the ethnic Russian population, in turn, moved to other parts of the USSR, notably the Baltic states, after inter-ethnic conflict broke out briefly in 1958.
According to sociologist Georgy Derluguyan, the Checheno-Ingush Republic's economy was divided into two spheres – much like French settler-ruled Algeria – and the Russian sphere had all the jobs with higher salaries, while non-Russians were systematically kept out of all government positions. Russians (as well as Ukrainians and Armenians) worked in education, health, oil, machinery, and social services. Non-Russians (excluding Ukrainians and Armenians) worked in agriculture, construction, a long host of undesirable jobs, as well as the so-called "informal sector" (i.e. illegal, due to the mass discrimination in the legal sector).
At the same time a great deal of development occurred in the city. Like many other Soviet cities, the Stalinist style of architecture was prevalent during this period, with apartments in the centre as well as administrative buildings including the massive Council of Ministers and the Grozny University buildings being constructed in Grozny. Later projects included the high-rise apartment blocks prominent in many Soviet cities, as well as a city airport. In 1989, the population of the city was almost 400,000 people.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Grozny became the seat of a separatist government led by Dzhokhar Dudayev. According to some, many of the remaining Russian and other non-Chechen residents fled or were expelled by groups of militants, adding to a harassment and discrimination from the new authorities. These events are perceived by some as an act of an ethnic cleansing of non-Chechens, which has been reflected in the materials of General Prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation.
This view is disputed by authors, such as Russian economists Boris Lvin and Andrei Illarionov, who argue that Russian emigration from the area was no more intense than in other regions of Russia at the time. According to this view of the ethnic situation in Ichkeria, the primary cause of Russian emigration was the extensive bombing of Grozny (where four out of five, or nearly 200,000 Russians in Chechnya lived before the war) by the Russian military during the First Chechen War.
The covert Russian attempts of overthrowing Dudayev by means of armed Chechen opposition forces resulted in repeated failed assaults on the city. Originally, Moscow had been backing the political opposition of Umar Avturkhanov "peacefully" (i.e. without supplying the opposition with weapons and encouraging them to try a coup). However, this changed in 1994, after the coups in neighbouring Georgia and Azerbaijan (both of which Moscow was involved with), when Russia encouraged armed opposition, and occasionally assisted. In August 1994 Avturkhanov attacked Grozny, but was repelled first by Chechen citizens who were then joined by Grozny government troops; Russian helicopters covered his retreat. On 28 September, one of these helicopters was shot down and its Russian pilot was held as a prisoner-of-war by the Chechen government. The last assault, on 26 November 1994, ended with capture of 21 Russian Army tank crew members who had secretly been hired as mercenaries by the FSK (former KGB, not long after renamed FSB); their capture was sometimes cited as one of the reasons for Boris Yeltsin's decision to openly intervene. In the meantime, Grozny airport and other targets were bombed by unmarked Russian aircraft.
During the First Chechen War, Grozny was the site of an intense battle lasting from December 1994 to February 1995 and ultimately ending with the capture of the city by the Russian military. Intense fighting and carpet bombing carried out by the Russian Air Force destroyed much of the city. Thousands of combatants on both sides died in the fighting, alongside civilians, many of whom were reportedly ethnic Russians; unclaimed bodies were later collected and buried in mass graves on the city outskirts. The main federal military base in Chechnya was located in the area of Grozny air base.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Grozny”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.