ABSTRACT
Traditionally, lowland Chechens were grain farmers and agriculturists, whereas the highlanders raised fine-fleeced sheep and cattle. Bee-keeping was initially practised in the wild, but the business was later domesticated. Broadcloth, felt rugs and clothes were made from wool. Ropes were made from horsehair or strips of leather. Chechen master craftsmen manufactured wagons, water-mills and other sophisticated machinery. Chechens built bridges and dug irrigation canals. The Chechen horse was known for its hardiness, stamina and staying power. According to the nineteenth-century Russian General Velyaminov, a Chechen horse, if specially trained, could carry its rider some 160 km in one summer day (J.F.Baddeley 1940, I:121). Velyaminov was also full of praise for Chechen horsemen who were ‘very superior in many respects both to our regular cavalry and the Cossacks. They are all but born on horseback.’ A horse fair used to be held biannually in Grozny, which attracted horse-sellers and merchants from many parts of the Caucasus, including Cossacks and Russians, and from far-away Persia.
