ABSTRACT
The experience of the former Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Chechnya over the past decade constitutes what is perhaps the largest-scale and longest-running humanitarian tragedy to have emerged from the collapse of the Soviet and Soviet-satellite regimes, as the ongoing military engagement and massive civilian suffering in Chechnya has now far outlasted that of the former Yugoslavia. The Chechen odyssey in the post-Soviet era can be divided into three periods of attempted state building: two led by secessionist Chechens and aimed at establishing an independent Chechen state (autumn 1991-December 1994 and August 1996-September 1999) and the current period led by Russian Federation officials in Chechnya and aimed at re-integrating Chechnya into the Russian state ( June 2000-present). These intervals of mostly unsuccessful state-building have been punctuated by two wars between the pro-independence Chechen forces and the combined forces of the Defence and Interior Ministries of the Russian Federation (December 1994-August 1996 and September 1999-present).
