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INGUSH REPUBLIC
Land area: North Caucasus
Population: 1,234,000 (1995)
Historical Overview:
The Ingush are one of a number of small ethnic groups on Russia's southern border. There are some 200,000 of them, mostly living in the Ingush autonomous republic within the Russian Federation. Ethnically, they are very close to the Chechens, with whom they share a common language and common customs. Both the Chechens and Ingush are Muslims, although their faith is strongly tinged with national traditions only vaguely connected to Islam. The Ingush fiercely resisted the Russian takeover but were eventually forced to succumb to Russian control. Cossacks were settled in the area to ensure this control.
The Ingush have had an unhappy history over the course of this century. The communist seizure of power led to what is known by the Ingush as the `first deportation'. Thousands of Ingush fled to Turkey in the 1920s after the suppression of resistance to Bolshevik rule. The `second deportation' came in February 1944 when Stalin's state security chief Lavrenty Beria ordered the deportation of the entire Ingush nation beyond the Urals in punishment for alleged collaboration with the Nazis.
It was not until 1957 that the Ingush were allowed to return to Ingushetia. They were forced to buy back their homes from the new, Ossetian owners. The Chechen-Ingush republic was re-formed but, despite vigorous Ingush protests, the Prigorodny district (handed to North Ossetia in 1944) was not given back. It remained part of North Ossetia. Over the next 45 years the North Ossetian authorities did everything they could to prevent Ingush being registered in the district - at the time of their expulsion in 1992, about one-third of the district's Ingush residents were not registered there officially.
The Ingush Republic:
The Ingush Republic was formed in 1991 from the Ingush-populated areas of Chechnya-Ingushetia. The Ingush were strongly backed by President Yeltsin, who had been angered by the Chechens' desire for complete independence from Russia. A referendum in favour of independence within the RSFSR was held in November 1991, 97 per cent approval for the plan being recorded. A December 1992 amendment to the Russian constitution formalised the separation of Ingushetia from Chechnya. In May 1993, a special congress met in the Ingush capital Nazran and declared state sovereignty within Russia. The president since February 1993 has been Ruslan Aushev, a former army officer and decorated Afghan war veteran.
The republican government and president have been forced to maintain a very delicate balance between asserting local interests and alienating Moscow. There are four main causes of instability:
1- The war in Chechnya had direct implications for a republic which, until 1992, was part of a unified Chechen-Ingushetian Republic. Not only do many Ingush support Chechen claims to independence but also heavy-handed Russian tactics led to attacks on Ingush targets.
2- There is a general Caucasian resistance to rule from Moscow which the Ingush share. This has been exacerbated by a wide-spread perception that the federal authorities have supported the North Ossetians against Ingushetia.
3- The confused nature on Ingushetia's division from Chechnya and the chaos which prevailed in the region hindered efforts to create stable structures of government and representation.
4- Terek Cossacks account for most of the small ethnic Russian population. Seeing themselves as a beleaguered and oppressed minority, they are outspoken and often violent in defence of their rights and land. In this, they are supported by other Cossack elements of the Terek Host elsewhere in the Caucasus.
Territorial Disputes:
The formation of an Ingush Republic in 1992 led to increased ethnic Ingush nationalism in the North Ossetian Prigorodnyi District (which had been forcibly transferred to North Ossetia in 1944). This region is relatively fertile and prosperous and seen by both sides as a vital source of economic and political resources. By October 1992, this had escalated to open clashes between Ossetians and Ingush and several hundred people were killed on both sides. Some 80,000 Ingush were driven across the border into Ingushetia. In November, Moscow declared martial law and sent an estimated 10,000 troops and security police to North Ossetia and Ingush to impose it. These refugees retain their claims to rights and property in Prigorodnyi and the return of the dispossessed may lead to their demands for a secession to Ingush Republic control. Although Ingushetia has not felt strong enough to revive its open campaign to regain Prigorodnyi, it has certainly not admitted defeat.
There is also some dispute between Ingushetia and Chechnya over the Sunja District, which is of mixed Chechen, Ingush and Cossack population, but otherwise relations with Chechnya were good while Dudayev was in control of the breakaway republic. The Russian assault on Chechnya complicated Ingushetia's position. Although there was widespread public hostility to the Russian attack and the Ingush leadership provided information to the outside world about atrocities by Russian forces during the war, the Ingush Government was careful not to become embroiled in the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Chechnya (both Ingush and Chechens) fled into Ingushetia, where they have been living in terrible conditions. The Ingush Government, which receives an estimated 90 per cent of its budget direct from Moscow, could not afford to support the refugees but they have received some financial help from the international community.
