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The Republic of Ingushetia (Russian: Респу́блика Ингуше́тия, tr. Respublika Ingushetiya; IPA: ; Ingush: Гӏалгӏай Мохк, Ğalğaj Moxk), also referred to as simply Ingushetia, is a federal subject of Russia (a republic), located in the North Caucasus region. The name Ingushetia is derived from the ancient village Angusht which was renamed into Tarskoye and transferred to North Ossetia in 1944 after the genocide of 23 February 1944.
Its capital is the town of Magas. In terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russia's federal subjects except for the federal cities. It was established on June 4, 1992 after the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was split in two.[4][5] The republic is home to the indigenous Ingush, a people of Vainakh ancestry. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 412,529.[8]
Ingushetia is one of Russia's poorest and most restive regions. The military conflict in neighboring Chechnya has occasionally spilled into Ingushetia, and the republic has been destabilized by corruption, a number of high-profile crimes (including kidnapping and murder of civilians by government security forces[14]), anti-government protests, attacks on soldiers and officers, Russian military excesses and a deteriorating human rights situation.[15][16]
The Ingush, a nationality group indigenous to the Russian missionaries Christianised the Ingush. The remains of several churches, notably the Tkhabya-Yerd and the Albe-Yerd can be found in Ingushetia. Ingush peacefully converted to Islam at the end of the 19th century which is almost three centuries after the beginning of Islamization in Chechnya and Dagestan.
According to [21][22] The Soviet-Russian anthropologists and scientists N.Ya. Marr, V.V. Bounak, R.M. Munchaev, I.M Dyakonov, E.I. Krupnov and G.A. Melikashvilli wrote: "Among Ingush the Caucasian type is preserved better than among any other North Caucasian nation", Professor of anthropology V.V.Bounak "Groznenski Rabochi" 5, VII, 1935. Professor G.F.Debets recognized that Ingush Caucasian anthropologic type is the most Caucasian among Caucasians.[23] In an article in Science Magazine Bernice Wuethrich states that American linguist Dr. Johanna Nichols "has used language to connect modern people of the Caucasus region to the ancient farmers of the Fertile Crescent" and that her research suggests that "farmers of the region were proto-Nakh-Daghestanians". Nichols is quoted as stating: "The Nakh–Dagestanian languages are the closest thing we have to a direct continuation of the cultural and linguistic community that gave rise to Western civilization". Dr. Henry Harpending, University of Utah supports her claims in the article.[24]
The Ingush have 89% of J2 Y-DNA which is the highest known frequency in the world and J2 is closely associated with the Fertile Crescent.[25] The mitochondrial DNA of the Ingush differs from other Caucasian populations and the rest of the world. "The Caucasus populations exhibit, on average, less variability than other [World] populations for the eight Alu insertion poly-morphisms analysed here. The average heterozygosity is less than that for any other region of the world, with the exception of Sahul. Within the Caucasus, Ingushians have much lower levels of variability than any of the other populations. The Ingushians also showed unusual patterns of mtDNA variation when compared with other Caucasus populations (Nasidze and Stoneking, submitted), which indicates that some feature of the Ingushian population history, or of this particular sample of Ingushians, must be responsible for their different patterns of genetic variation at both mtDNA and the Alu insertion loci."[26][27]
Russian historians claim that the Ingush volunteered to become a part of Russia. This conclusion is based mostly on the document signed on 13 June 1810 by General-Major Delpotso and representatives of 2 Ingush clans. Other clans resisted the Russian conquest. On June 29, 1832 Russian barron Rozen reported in letter No.42 to count Chernishev that "on the 23rd of this month I exterminated eight Ghalghai (Ingush) villages. On the 24th I exterminated nine more villages near Targim." By November 12, 1836 (letter no.560, he was claiming that highlanders of Dzheirkah, Kist, and Ghalghai had been temporarily conquered.[35] The Russian conquest was extremely difficult and the Russian forces began to rely on the method of colonization: extermination of local population and populating area with Cossack and Ossetian loyalists. Colonization of Ingush land by Russians and Ossetians started in the middle of the 19th century. Russian General Evdokimov and Ossetian colonel Kundukhov in 'Opis no. 436' "gladly reported" that "the result of colonization of Ingush land was successful":
After the losses the remaining Ingush clans resorted mostly to underground resistance.[37] The Russians built the fortress Turkey and the Middle East by claiming that "Muslims need to live under Muslim rulers". It seems that he wanted to liberate the land for Ossetians and Cossaks.[37] Some Ingush willingly went into exile to deserted territory in the Middle East where many of them died. The remainder were assimilated. It was estimated that 80% of the Ingush left Ingushetia for the Middle East in 1865.[47][48]
After the Turkey and sought the assistance from the Turks from Elisavetpol, and Germany – from Tiflis. In August, when the Cossacks and Ossetians captured Vladikavkaz, the Ingush intervened and saved the Soviet Board of Commissioners of Terek, but cruelly plundered the city and captured the state bank and mint. They robbed all the neighbors: the Cossacks and Ossetians in the name of "correcting historical errors".[49]
On December 21, 1917 Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan declared independence from Russia and formed a single state called the "United Mountain Dwellers of the North Caucasus" (also known as Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus), which was recognized by major world powers. The capital of the new state was moved to Temir-Khan-Shura (Dagestan)[50][51][52] The first prime minister of the state was elected Tapa Chermoyev a Chechen prominent statesman, second prime minister was elected an Ingush statesman Vassan-Girey Dzhabagiev who also was the author of the Constitution of the land in 1917, in 1920 he was reelected for the third term. In 1921 Russians attack and occupy the country and forcefully join in to the Soviet state. Caucasian war for independence continues the government goes into exile.[53]
The Soviets confiscated the remaining Ingush properties by collectivization and dekulakization[54] and unified Chechnya and Ingushetia into Chechen-Ingush ASSR. During World War II Ingush youth were drafted into the Russian army. In August 1942, for thee weeks, Nazi German forces captured half of the North Caucasus and are stopped only at two Ingush towns: Ordzhonikidze (modern day Vladikavkaz) and Malgobek. The battle between Ingush and Germans intensifies at Malgobek and the small town being captured and recaptured 4 times for another month until Germans finally retreat. Stalin's plans were expansion of the USSR on the south through Turkey. Muslim Chechens and Ingush could become a threat for the expansion.[55] In February 1944 near the end of World War II Russian Army and NKVD units flood Chechen-Ingush ASSR, the maneuvers were disguised as military exercises of the southern district.
On 23 February 1944 Ingush and Chechens were falsely accused of collaborating with the Nazis operation code name Lentil starts and the entire Ingush and Chechen populations were deported to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Siberia on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin while majority of their men were fighting on the front. The initial phase of the deportation was carried out on the USA supplied Studebaker trucks[56] specifically modified with three submachine gun nest compartments above the deported to prevent escapes. The deportees were gathered on the railroad stations and during the second phase transferred to the cattle railroad carts. Up to 30% of the population perished during the journey or in the first year of the exile.[57][58][59] The Prague Watchdog claims that "in the early years of their exile about half of the Chechens and Ingush died from hunger, cold and disease".[60] The deportation was classified by the European Parliament in 2004 as genocide.[61] After the deportation Ingush resistance against Russia rises again. Those who escaped the deportation, shepherds who were high in the mountains during the deportation combine forces and form rebel groups which constantly attack Russian forces in Ingushetia. Major rebel groups were led by Akhmed Khuchbarov, Tsitskiev brothers, and Ingush woman-sniper Laisat Baisarova. Last one of the male Ingush rebels was killed in 1977 by the KGB officers, the female sniper Laisat Baisarova was never captured or killed.[62]
After 13 years of exile Ingush were allowed to return to Checheno-Ingushetia (but not to Ordzhonikidze or the Prigorodny District). Most of Ingushetia's territory had been settled by Ossetians and part of the region had been transferred to North Ossetia. The returning Ingush faced considerable animosity from the Ossetians. The Ingush were forced to buy their homes back from the Ossetians and Russians. These hardships and injustices led to a peaceful Ingush protest in Grozny in 16 January 1973, which was crushed by the Soviet troops[63] In 1989, the Ingush were officially rehabilitated along with other peoples that had been subjected to repressions.[64]
In 1991, when the Chechens declared independence from the Soviet Union to form the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the Ingush chose to secede from the Chechen-Ingush Republic. Thus, in 1992 the Ingush joined the newly created Russian Federation to try to resolve the conflict with Ossetia peacefully, also in the hope that the Russians would return their land as a token of their loyalty.
However, ethnic tensions in North Ossetia which were orchestrated by Ossetian ultra nationalists (per Helsinki human Right watch), led to the outbreak of the Ossetian–Ingush conflict in late October, when another ethnic cleansing of the Ingush population started. Thousands of Ingush civilians were taken hostage by combined Russian and Ossetian forces. Including over 500 Ingush hostages held in Beslan high-school. According to media reports, the Beslan high school gymnasium was one of several buildings in which the Ossetian militants had held hundreds of Ingush hostages, many of them women and children. The hostages were all kept in the same gymnasium, and deprived of food and water; at least one newborn, and several dozen male hostages were executed.[65][66][67][68] Over 60,000 Ingush civilians being forced from their homes in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia.[37] As a result of the conflict, Ruslan Aushev, the Soviet hero of war in Afghanistan, was appointed by the Russian government as the first president of Ingushetia and partial stability returned under his rule.
In 1994, when the first South Ossetia broke out, in which the Russian Federation subsequently became involved.[78] After the outbreak of the war, there were virtually no more attacks or abductions of Ingush civilians by "unknown" forces. Most of the Russian forces were transferred to North and South Ossetias[79] 31 August 2008 Magomed Yevloyev, the head of Ingush opposition and the owner the website ingushetiya.ru, was killed by Russian security forces[80] Shortly before the unrecognised opposition group People's Parliament of Ingushetia Mekhk-Kkhel called for the recognition of the Russian semi-autonomous republic's independence, opposition activist Magomed Khazbiyev proclaimed, "We must ask Europe or America to separate us from Russia."[81][82]
On October 18, 2008, a Russian military convoy came under grenade attack and machine gun fire near Nazran. Official Russian reports of the ambush, which has been blamed on local Muslim separatists, said two soldiers were killed and at least seven injured. Reports from Ingush opposition sources suggested as many as forty to fifty Russian soldiers were killed.[83][84]
On October 30, 2008 Zyazikov was dismissed from his office (he himself claimed he resigned voluntarily). On the next day, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was nominated by Dmitry Medvedev and approved as President by the People's Assembly of Ingushetia (later the title President was rennamed to Head). This move was endorsed by major Russian political parties and by Ingush opposition.[85][86] Under the current rule of Yevkurov, Ingushetia seems much calmer, showing some semblance of Russian government. Attacks on policemen have fallen by 40% and abductions by 80%.[87]
According to professor Johanna Nichols, in all the recorded history and reconstructable prehistory the Ingush people have never undertaken battle except in defense.[37] In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC Pharnavaz, his son Saurmag the Iberian kings, and the relatives of Ingush people per Leonti Mroveli, received military assistance from Ingush people in defence of Iberia against the Kartli occupation.[88]
During World War I, 500 cavalrymen from an Ingush regiment of the Wild Division attacked the German Iron Division. The Russian Emperor Nicholas II, assessing the performance of the Ingush and Chechen regiments during the Brusilov breakthrough on the Russian-German front in 1915 wrote in a telegram to the Governor-General of the Tersky region Fleisher:
The Ingush regiment pounced upon the German "Iron Division" like an avalanche. It was immediately supported by the Chechen regiment. The Russian history, including the history of our Preobrazhensky regiment, does not know a single instance of a horse cavalry attacking an enemy force armed with heavy artillery: 4.5 thousand killed, 3.5 thousand taken prisoner, 2.5 thousand wounded. Less than in an hour and a half the "Iron Division" ceased to exist, the division that had aroused fear in the best armies of our allies. On behalf of me, the royal court and the whole of the Russian army send our best regards to fathers, mothers, sisters, wives and brides of those brave sons of the Caucasus whose heroism paved the way for the destruction of German hordes. Russia bows low to the heroes and will never forget them. I extend my fraternal greetings, Nicholas II, August 25, 1915.[89]
In 1941, when Germans attacked the USSR, the whole Russian front was retreating 40 km a day. Out of 6,500 defenders of Brest Fortress 6,000 Soviet troops capitulated. 500 troops were fresh conscripts of Ingush and Chechen origin. Defenders held the fortress for over a month against the Germans and even managed to stage several attacks from the Fortress. The last defender's name has been unknown for a long time; his documents identified him as a man called Barkhanoyev. Decades later, official records revealed it was Umatgirei Barkhanoyev from the Ingush village of Yandare. Recently, the memoirs of Stankus Antanas, a Lithuanian national and former Waffen SS officer, were published in Ingushetia. He recalls that in July 1941, his regiment was ordered to "finish off" the remaining Soviet soldiers in the fortress. When the Nazis decided that no defenders had been left alive, an SS general lined up his soldiers on the parade ground to award them with decorations for capturing the fortress. Then, a Red Army officer came out from the fortress's underground bunker:
He was blind because of his wounds and walked with his left arm extended forward. His right hand rested on a gun holster. He walked along the parade grounds wearing a ragged uniform, but his head was held high. The entire division was shocked at the sight. Approaching a shell-hole, he turned his face toward the west. The German general suddenly saluted this last defender of the Brest Fortress, and the rest of the officers followed suit. The Red Army officer drew a handgun and shot himself in the head. He fell on the ground facing Germany. A deep-drawn sigh aired over the parade grounds. We all stood 'frozen' in awe of this brave man.[90]
In 1994–96 Ingush volunteers fought alongside Chechens in the First Chechen War. Aside from a few incidents (including the killings of Ingush civilians by Russian soldiers), Ingushetia was largely kept out of the war by a determined policy of non-violence pursued by President Ruslan Aushev.[37]
This changed after the beginning of the Second Chechen War, and especially since Murat Zyazikov became the second Russian appointed president of Ingushetia in 2002. The first major rebel attack of the conflict, in which a military convoy was destroyed occurred in May 2000 and caused the deaths of 19 soldiers. In the June 2004 Nazran raid, Chechen and Ingush rebels attacked government buildings and military bases across Ingushetia, resulting in the deaths of at least 90 Ingush people and unknown number of Russian troops. Among them the Republic's acting interior minister Abukar Kostoyev, his deputy Zyaudin Kotiyev. In response to a sharp escalation in attacks by insurgents since the summer of 2007,[91] Moscow sent in an additional 25,000 MVD and FSB troops, tripling the number of special forces in Ingushetia.
Population: 412,529 (2010 Census);[8] 467,294 (2002 Census).[117]
The Ingush, a nationality group indigenous to the Caucasus, mostly inhabit Ingushetia. They refer to themselves as Ghalghai (from Ingush: Ghala ("fortress" or "town") and ghai ("inhabitants" or "citizens"). The Ingush speak the Ingush language, which has a very high degree of mutual intelligibility with neighboring Chechen.
Note: Total fertility rate 2009, 2010, 2011 source:[118]
According to the 2010 Russian Census (2010),[8] ethnic Ingush make up 94.1% of the republic's population. Other groups include Chechens (4.6%), Russians (0.8%), and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population.
The Ingush are predominantly Shāfi‘ī Madh'hab of Sunni Islam[120] with some Sufi minority which are often associated with one of two traditional Sufi orders: the Sufi tariqa Naqshbandi, represented in Ingushetia by the brotherhood of Deni Arsanov, and the tariqa Qadiriyyah, associated with Kunta-Haji Kishiev.[121][122]
Ingushetia is situated on the northern slopes of the Gora Shan[125] (4451 m).
A 150-kilometer (93 mi) stretch of the Caucasus Mountains runs through the territory of the republic.
Major rivers include:
Ingushetia is rich in marble, timber, dolomite, plaster, limestone, gravel, granite, clay, thermal medical water, rare metals, mineral water, oil (over 60 billion tons), and natural gas reserves.
Ingushetia's climate is mostly continental.
The head of government and the highest executive post in Ingushetia is the Head.
Recent heads:
Recent Chairmen of the Government:
The parliament of the Republic is the People's Assembly comprising 34 deputees elected for a four-year term. The People's Assembly is headed by the Chairman. As of 2006, the Chairman of the People's Assembly is Makhmud Sultanovich Sakalov.
The Constitution of Ingushetia was adopted on February 27, 1994.
Ingushetia is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
The capital was moved from Nazran to Magas in December 2002.
The most recent election was held in 2013.
There are some natural resources in Ingushetia: mineral water in Achaluki, oil and natural gas in Malgobek, forests in Dzheirakh, metals in Galashki. The local government is considering the development of tourism; however, this is problematic due to the uneasy situation in the republic itself and the proximity of some conflict zones. However, Ingushetia continues to remain as one of Russia's poorest republics, largely due to the ongoing conflict, corruption and civil disorders. Unemployment is estimated to be around 53%, and growing poverty is a major issue.
Ingush State University, the first institute of higher education in the history of Ingushetia, was founded in 1994 in Ordzhonikidzevskaya.[127]
Russian language, Russia, Grozny, Ingushetia, Caucasus
Azerbaijan, Armenia, Asia, Chechnya, Russia
Kiev, Russia, Sevastopol, Ukrainian language, Ukrainians
Russia, Capital city, Federal subjects of Russia, Nazran, Ufa
Ukraine, India, China, Turkey, United Kingdom
Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Makhachkala
Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Makhachkala, Grozny
Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, Makhachkala, Ingushetia
Killed in action, Russia, Ingushetia, Insurgency in the North Caucasus, Second Chechen War
Russia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Northeast Caucasian languages, Kazakhstan