Ancient Chechnya. History of the Chechen Republic

CHECHENS, Nokhchiy(self-name), people in the Russian Federation, the main population of Chechnya.

According to the 2002 Population Census, 1 million 361 thousand Chechens live in Russia. According to the 2010 Census, 1 million 431 thousand also live in Ingushetia, Dagestan, Stavropol Territory, Volgograd Region, Kalmykia, Astrakhan, Saratov, Tyumen Region, North Ossetia, Moscow, as well as in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, etc.

Ethnonym

In Armenian sources of the 7th century, Chechens are mentioned under the name "nakhcha matyan" ("speaking the Nokhchi language"). In documents of the 16th-17th centuries there are tribal names of Chechens ( Ichkerin residents, Okoks, Shubuts, etc..). The name Chechens was a Russian transliteration of Kabardian "sheshei" and came from the name of the village of Bolshoi Chechen.

Language

Chechens speak the Chechen language of the Nakh group of the Nakh-Dagestan branch of the North Caucasian language family. Dialects: flat, Akkinsky, Cheberloevsky, Melkhinsky, Itumkalinsky, Galanchozhsky, Kistinsky. The Russian language is also widespread. Writing after 1917 was first based on Arabic, then Latin script, and since 1938 - based on the Russian alphabet.

Religion

Believing Chechens are Sunni Muslims. There are two widespread Sufi teachings - Naqshbandi and Nadiri. The main deities of the pre-Muslim pantheon were the god of the sun and sky Del, the god of thunder and lightning Sel, the patron of cattle breeding Gal-Erdy, the patron of hunting - Elta, the goddess of fertility Tusholi, the god of the underworld Eshtr. Islam penetrates Chechnya in the 13th century through the Golden Horde and Dagestan. Fully Chechens converted to Islam in the 18th century. An important element of Chechen society are Sufi communities-virds along with clans (teips), although ordinary civil institutions currently play a priority social role.

Traditional activities

Agriculture and cattle breeding. The Chechens raised sheep, cattle, and thoroughbred horses for riding.. There was economic specialization between the mountainous and lowland regions of Chechnya: receiving grain from the plains, the mountain Chechens sold their surplus livestock in return. Jewelry and blacksmithing crafts, mining, silk production, and bone and horn processing were also developed.

Cloth

Traditional Chechen men's clothing - shirt, trousers, beshmet, cherkeska. Men's hats are tall, flaring hats made of valuable fur. The hat was considered the personification of masculine dignity; knocking it down would entail blood feud.

The main elements of Chechen women's clothing are a shirt and pants. The shirt had a tunic-like cut, sometimes below the knees, sometimes to the ground. The color of clothing was determined by the status of the woman and differed among married, unmarried and widowed women.

1. History of the Chechens.

1.2 Distant ancestors

2. Teip-Tukkhum democracy

4. Timur's invasion

5. Folk legends

5.1The legend about the ascent to Mount Tebulos-Mta

5.2Nokhchalla

5.3 Mutual assistance, mutual assistance

5.4 Hospitality

5.5 "In the family circle"

5.6 “Family honor.”

5.7 wedding etiquette

5.8 Papakha - a symbol of honor

5.9 Special numbers - 7 and 8

5.10 Attitude towards women

5.11 Ritual of “calling for rain”

5.12 Festival of the Thunderer Sela

5.13 Festival of the goddess Tusholi

5.14 Plow Festival

5.15 Spring Festival

5.16 New Year

6. Chechen Republic

7. Another Chechnya

7.1 Anarchists

7.4 What all historians are silent about...

7.4 interethnic crisis in Chechnya

1. History of the Chechens.

1.1Legend about the origin of the Chechens

The ancestors of the Chechens left the country of Shem many thousands of years ago. Then they lived for a long time in the country of Nakhchuvan. From Nakhchuvan, three brothers migrated to Kazygman, where their father’s relatives lived, including an uncle. They lived in Kagyzman for 10 years. Their younger brother died there. The surviving two brothers went to Erzurum, where they lived for six years. The second brother died there. The remaining elder brother then visited the Khalibs, who lived on the southeastern coast of the Black Sea. Here he lived for some time with his family, consisting of his wife, three sons, four daughters and a nephew. The nephew married and stayed with the Khalibs, and he and his family migrated to the place where the Baksan flowed. From there, his descendants settled in the direction of present-day Chechnya.

Interestingly, this legend mentions the area of ​​Khalib. Now there is no such name, but in ancient times the Khaliba people lived along the southeastern coast of the Black Sea...

1.2 Distant ancestors

The ethnic history of the Vainakhs (Chechens and Ingush) dates back to the ancient Western Asian civilization. In Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers), in Anatolia, the Syrian and Armenian highlands, in Transcaucasia and on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, majestic and mysterious traces of Hurrian states, cities, and settlements dating back to the 4th - 1st millennia BC remained. It is the Hurrians, who formed the main part of Sumerian society - the earliest civilization on our planet - that modern historical science considers to be the most ancient ancestors of the Nakh peoples (Chechens, Ingush, Tsova-Tushins).

Numerous Hurrian states and communities at different historical times dissolved into new state formations. The last, most powerful state of the Hurrians is Urartu. Some of the Urartian tribes merged over time with the dominant ethnic groups. But the other part preserved itself, remaining relict islands, and managed to survive to this day. Today’s Chechens, Ingush, Tsovatushins, and other peoples and nationalities who managed to survive in the gorges of the ancient Caucasus are precisely such relict ethnic groups.

Other ancestors of modern Chechens and Ingush are aborigines who lived from ancient times on the northern slopes of the Central zone of the Greater Caucasus Range. On the territory of modern Chechnya, in the area of ​​Lake Kezenoy-Am in the Vedeno region, traces of people who lived here 40 thousand years ago were discovered. Thus, it can be stated that the current homeland of the Chechens is the habitat of the most ancient people. Here a number of material cultures are layered one on top of the other. Silent witnesses to the history of the Vainakhs are structures made of huge stone blocks, ancient mounds, medieval towers...

1.3 Ethnogenesis of modern Chechens

How did the distant ancestors of the Vainakhs - the Hurrians - cross the Main Caucasus Range and settle in the valleys? Among the sources that shed light on this process is “Kartlis Tskhovreba” - a collection of Georgian chronicles attributed to Leonti Mroveli. Most of these chronicles appeared at the end of the 1st millennium BC. The distant ancestors of the Vainakhs are called Dzurdzuks. They, as a significant political force, are mentioned in connection with many important events of that time: internecine clashes, dynastic marriages, etc. The wife of the first Georgian king Farnavaz was a woman from the Dzurdzuks.

The Dzurdzuks are the distant ancestors of modern Chechens, who migrated from Urartu to the north. And that's why. Eastern Hurrian-Urartian tribes lived on the shores of Lake Urmia. The city of Durdukka was located there. The tribes that migrated to Transcaucasia were called “Durduks” (Dzurdzuks) after the name of the city. The language they spoke was related to the Vainakh language. The same languages ​​could not have originated simultaneously in both Asia Minor and the North Caucasus. And tongues don't move on their own. Thus, linguistic analogies explained the appearance of the Hurrians - representatives of the ancient Sumerian civilization - on the territory of modern Chechnya.

The Nakh tribes, tribal unions and kingdoms located in the center of the Caucasus on both sides of the ridge at the beginning and first half of the new era are the Eras, Dzurdzuks, Kakhs, Ganakhs, Khalibs, Mechelons, Khons, Tsanars, Tabals, Diaukhs, Myalkhs, Sodas.

In those areas where the Araks River (the ancient name is Yeraskhi) flowed through the habitat of the eras, during the era of the Armenian kingdom the Eraz district was located in the Yeraskhadzor gorge (“dzor” gorge). It is interesting that there are also references to the Nakhchradzor community, i.e. community of Nakhchra gorge. The word “nakhchra” directly echoes the self-name of the Chechens - nakhche.

Since ancient times, part of the Vainakh ancestors inhabited the North Caucasian steppes adjacent to the territory of present-day Chechnya. In the first millennium, these lands were in the possession of the Khazar Khaganate, whose state religion was Judaism. Connections with the Khazars are still palpable in Chechen ethnography. The modern ethnological memory of the Chechen ethnos preserves knowledge of lands far from Chechnya, adjacent to the Black Sea, the Don and the Volga.

The ancestors of the Chechens actively participated in political life in the south of Eastern Europe, in the history of the same Khazar Kaganate.

A notable aspect of the ethnic identification of Chechens is their attitude towards Jews.

Some teips simply trace themselves back to one or another Jewish ancestor. There is a popular joke that when three people gather, one of them will be a Jew (zhukti). According to Akhmad Suleymanov, the name of the famous Shotoy society comes from the word shot, shubut - the Jewish designation for Saturday. In Chechnya there are toponyms that translate: “Army of the Jews”, “Mound where the Jews died.” Perhaps this is evidence of the Khazar past.

Chechens are confident that their deepest roots historically stretch back to the Sumerian kingdom (30th century BC). They also consider themselves descendants of the ancient Urartians (9-6 centuries BC). In any case, the deciphered cuneiform of these two civilizations indicates that many authentic words have been preserved in the Chechen language.

The Upper Aorsi in Strabo's "Geography", which, based on the territory of settlement (and according to the latest linguistic data, and language) can be identified with the ancestors of the Chechens, are described as a powerful people, having a king and capable of fielding a huge army, controlling large areas from the mouth of the Don right up to to the coast of the Caspian Sea. The ancient Greek author suggests that the Aorsi are fugitives from the peoples living above, i.e. in the Caucasus mountains.

Caucasian Albania was also a monarchy, the main and probably the most cultural part of the population of which were the Gargars (cf. Chech. Gyargar -

"close, related"), one of the Nakh tribes, placed in the 1st century. BC. Strabo in the eastern part of the Caucasus. According to Strabo, in Caucasian Albania “all the inhabitants are subordinate to one person, and in ancient times each group with a special language had a special king.”

The active role of the Nakh tribes in the Caucasus is noted in “The Lives of the Kartli Kings” by Leonti Mroveli, a Georgian historian of the 11th century. The ancient Armenian version of the source says that the descendants of Torgom “crossed the Caucasus mountains and filled the lands of Khazratz with the hands of Tiret’s son, Dutsuk,” i.e. Durdzuka (Durdzuk is the ethnonym of the mountain Chechens). In information from “The Life of Vakhtang Gorgasal,” the Georgian historian writes: “Then the king released great gifts to his allies - the Persians and the Caucasian kings...” The fact that the ethnonym “Caucasians” refers specifically to the Nakh tribes is not in doubt among most scientists . It can be assumed that the “Kings of the Caucasians” meant rulers who had a certain social status, and whatever the meaning of this concept, it presupposes the presence of social stratification among the Nakh tribes in that historical period.

The ancestors of the Chechens were no less powerful later, during the period of the Arab conquest of Transcaucasia and Dagestan. At this time, “the mountainous regions appear as areas of developed agriculture, densely populated, with strong fortifications, areas where stable ethnopolitical formations were fully formed. Most of them were headed by dynasties of rulers who, by the time of the Arab conquest, already had developed pedigrees.” According to the testimony of Arab authors (Ibn Ruste, al-Masudi), beyond Serir, which is identified by historians with modern Avaria, there is the state of Al-Lan, very densely populated, with many fortresses and castles, capable of fielding an army of 30 thousand. According to Ibn Rusta, the Alans are divided into four tribes, the most powerful of which is the Dakhsas tribe. I'M WITH. Vagapov believed that “dakhsas” in Arabic sources should be read as “nah-sas”, where the second element goes back to the ancient ethnonym of the Chechens “sasan”. On the eve of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, a large early feudal state, Alania, existed in the foothills and plains of the Central and North-Eastern Caucasus. The society of this state consisted of a class of feudal lords, a layer of free community members, dependent peasants, and household slaves.

2. Teip-Tukkhum democracy.

Thus, the Chechens, until the invasion of Timur, had various state formations with a formalized monarchical form of government and a delineated social stratification of society. And speaking about the historical experience of state building among the Chechens, we cannot limit ourselves only to teip-tukhum democracy, which some researchers consider the only form of political organization of Chechen society in the past. Teip-tukhum democracy is a traditional form of political organization of Chechen society from the 14th to the beginning of the 20th century. The supreme body, the Mekhk-khel or the Council of the Country, represented the legislative and judicial powers in one person. Members of the Mekhk-khel were elected according to a pyramid system from representatives of various teips.

The teip-tukhum organization in its classical form, in all likelihood, took shape in the period after Timur’s invasion, when the Chechen state with its institutions, ruling dynasties, and civilization skills developed by the ancestors of the Chechens over thousands of years were destroyed, when the Chechen land plunged into the darkness of the Time of Troubles , under which one law rules - the right of the strong. During this period, the Chechens were forced to leave the plains and foothills and go to the mountains.

In order to talk about the role of the teip-tukhum organization in the history of Chechnya, it is necessary to define what we mean by the concepts of “teip” and “tukhum”. This problem is very complex and confusing and has not yet received a more or less clear solution. “The identification and study of clan groupings in the Caucasus is extremely complicated and complicated by the fact that many Caucasian clans sometimes use a whole series of terms to designate these groupings, both local and borrowed from other languages,” M.A. wrote about this. Indirect. Various researchers understood by these terms both the surname, and individual societies, and the clan, and the clan community. But the Chechen teip in its classic form is neither patronymic nor gender.

The Chechens had the term “var” - clan (which, by the way, was preserved by the Ingush, but in a different meaning). It is much closer in its structure and content to the concept of gender. Var is a consanguineous organization, all of whose members go back to a single ancestor that actually existed. This may be confirmed by a relict concept that is still preserved in the Chechen language in idiomatic expressions: “Vari da is the father of the clan, the ancestor,” although folk etymology often reinterprets it as “Vorkhi da is the father of seven (meaning seven generations),” but it is likely that “var” - genus and “vorkh/varkh” - seven go back to the same root. M. Mamakaev’s definition of teip as “a patriarchal exogamous group of people descended from one common ancestor” is more suitable to the concept of “var” or the later “nekyi”.

stories

History of the origin of the Vainakh people
(history of the Chechen and Ingush peoples).

Starting this article (research), I want to tell readers that the origin of any people currently existing on our planet is a complex, multifaceted (I would say multi-layered process), sometimes occurring over several centuries, but most often this process takes place over millennia . And it is always difficult to trace this process, since the ancient history of the peoples of the world is currently greatly simplified by academic scientists.
If some scientists (researchers of ancient history) believe that human history begins 600-300 million years ago (perhaps it is even older) (I am also confident in their views), the overwhelming number of scientists - academicians from history, adhere to the theory of simplified history (these are Darwinists , materialists) according to which man evolved from monkeys only 40 thousand years ago, and the first civilizations on Earth are considered to be Ancient Egypt and Sumer (which arose in the 4th thousand BC).
Before considering the history of the emergence of the Vainakh people, I will say that it is difficult to investigate this history, since records about the ancestors of the Vainakhs did not appear in the oldest written records of either Ancient Egypt, or Sumer, or in the Elamite and Akkadian written documents. I will have to explore this story from several directions (take several approaches to this topic).

I will begin to consider this topic from the following sources. My first source will be the Soviet Historical Encyclopedia. What is written in it?
Chechens - (self-name - Nakhcho) - people living in the North Caucasus. The Chechen language belongs to the Nakh (Vainakh) branch of the Caucasian languages. Chechens, like their related Ingush, are the indigenous population of the North Caucasus. In Armenian sources of the 7th century they are mentioned under the name Nakhchamatyam. Initially, the Ch lived in the mountains, dividing into separate territorial groups (Michikovtsy, Kachkalykovtsy, Aukhovtsy, Ichkerintsy, Shatuyevtsy, Cheberloivtsy, Chantintsy, etc.). In the 15-16 centuries they began to move to the plain, to the valley of the Terek River and its tributaries - the Sunzha and Argun rivers.
Chechen-Ingush ASSR-republic within the RSFSR. The territory of Ch-I was inhabited back in the Stone Age, as evidenced by the finds of stone tools from the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. In the Bronze Age, the Ch-I territory was inhabited by tribes of the North Caucasian archaeological culture. The basis of the economy was cattle breeding, and there was also agriculture. The social system is patriarchal and tribal. The Late Bronze and Early Iron Age (late 2nd – 1st half of the 1st millennium BC) is characterized by monuments of the Kayauent-Khorochoi culture (typical for the territory of Dagkstan). The monuments of this culture indicate a significant level of socio-economic development of the tribes that passed to military democracy, the presence of developed copper and then iron metallurgy, and connections with Scythia, Transcaucasia and the Anterior Aztey. In subsequent times, monuments of the Sarmatian and Alanian cultures are found. In the pagan pantheon of the ancient Chechens and Ingush there were gods: Dayala - the supreme god of the sun and sky, Sela - the god of thunder and lightning, Furki - the goddess of the wind, Chacha - the goddess of water, Kkhinch - the goddess Moon, Erda - god of rocks, Tusholi - goddess of fertility. There is very little information on the history of the Chechens and Nigushes before the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, the ethnic name Chechens (from the village of Chechen) was established for the Nakhche tribe. The Galgai tribe was called differently: Galgaevtsy, Nazranites, Ingushites, and from the 2nd half of the 19th century - Ingush (from the village of Angush (Ingush). Feudal relations in Ch-I arose in the 16th century, but this process was slowed down. Chechens and Ingush lagged behind their neighbors Kabardians, some peoples of Dagestan and Georgians in socio-economic development, so they became dependent on neighboring feudal lords and until the beginning of the 19th century they waged a stubborn struggle with the Kabardian and Dagestan feudal lords, but at times paid them tribute.From the end of the 16th century, the Chechens and the Ingush establish relations with the Terek Cossacks. In the 17th century, Russian garrisons, together with the Chechens and Ingush, defended the border lines from Iranian and Turkish-Tatar invasions. At the end of the 18th century, the tsarism attempted to conquer Ch-I. This caused a war with the Chechens in 1785 led by the Chechen Ushurma, who took the name of Sheikh Mansur. Mansur was defeated, but Chechnya was not captured by the tsarist troops. In 1810, the Ingush accepted Russian citizenship. From 1817, tsarism moved on to a systematic offensive against the highlanders of Chechnya and Dagestan. It was a slow advance tactic. In 1818, the Grozny fortress was founded. The war with the Imamate led by Shamil (who united the Chechens and Dagestanis to fight for independence) ended in 1859, this date became the date of the official annexation of Chechnya to Russia. Here is a brief summary of all the information on the history of the Vainakh people according to the Soviet Historical Encyclopedia. This information is very insignificant for the history of the Vainakh people.

Now let's look at more modern information on this topic - according to Wikipedia.
Let's look at the article “History of Chechnya” there. The first reliable written news about the ancestors of the Chechens dates back to the period of the 1st century. BC e. - I century n. e. From the 9th century The flat part of Chechnya was part of the Alanian kingdom, and the mountainous part was part of the Serir kingdom. As a result of the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, the ancestors of the Chechens were forced to leave the lowland areas and go to the mountains. In the 14th century, the Chechens formed the state of Simsir, which was later destroyed by the troops of Tamerlane. Islam became the official religion there. The fact that the majority of Chechens converted to Islam already in the 15th-16th centuries is evidenced by the burials of that time. Since the 16th century The Chechens began to return to the plain and at the same time, Russian settlements (Terek Cossacks) appeared on the left bank of the Terek River. At first, peaceful, friendly relations developed between them and the Chechens. In 1588, the first Chechen embassy arrived in Moscow, petitioning for the acceptance of the Chechens under Russian protection, and Fyodor 1 Ioannovich issued a corresponding letter. Chechens went on campaigns together with Kabardians and Terek Cossacks against the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire and Persia. There is nothing new in this article about the origin of the Vainakhs. Now let's look at the article "Theories of the origin of the Chechens."
This article argues that the problem of the early stage of the history of the Chechens remains unclear, although their deep autochthony in the North-Eastern Caucasus is obvious (i.e. it is recognized that the Chechens are the indigenous, ancient population of the territory of the North Caucasus). At the same time, a massive movement of proto-Vainakh tribes from Transcaucasia to the north of the Caucasus cannot be ruled out, and there are several versions.
1. Proto-Vaynakhs (I will further call them the word “Nakhs”) are part of the Hurrians who lived in Transcaucasia (on the territory of the ancient state of Urartu). This is confirmed by the similarity of the Chechen and Hurrian languages ​​and an almost completely identical pantheon of gods.
2. Nakhs are the descendants of the population that lived in the region of Sumer (Tigris River). Chechen teptars call Shemaar (Shemara) the point of departure of the Chechen tribes, then Nakhchuvan, Kagyzman, North and North-East Georgia and finally the North Caucasus. However, most likely, this applies only to part of the Chechen Tukkhums, since the settlement route of other tribes is somewhat different, for example, Sharoi cultural figures point to the Leninakan (Sharoi) region, the same can be said about some of the Cheberloy clans, such as Khoy (“kho” - guard, patrol) (Khoy city in Iran). All these attempts to study the origins of the Chechens lead to the territory of the Fertile Crescent (this is the territory that includes Ancient Egypt, the Middle East and the area between the Tigris and Euphrates). According to this theory, the ancient Nakhs lived on the lands of the most ancient civilizations of Western Asia. And this is again similar to the Chechen legend about the exodus from Shemar.

But for now, this is a hypothesis, let’s look at other sources about the origin of the Vainakh people.
On the FRIENDLAND website I read the article “History of the Chechen People” (author Tamarim) and highlight only the most interesting places.
From the 3rd century. BC e. hegemony in the steppes of Eastern Europe passed from the Scythians to the Sarmatian tribes, who, like their predecessors, were speakers of Iranian languages. Contacts of the Sarmatians with the Caucasians can be traced back to the 6th-5th centuries. BC. But these relations were unstable due to the remoteness of the main habitats of the nomads. Sarmatian mounds dating back to the 5th century. BC, were discovered near the village of Goyty, on the outskirts of the village of Chervlenaya and in other places. There are numerous finds of stone sculptures that were placed on mounds by the Scythians and Sarmatians as tombstones. The bulk of them are located in the valley of the Aksai River, going deep into the mountains.
Having defeated the Scythians, the Sarmatians attacked neighboring tribes and states. Since the Scythians - more united militarily than the mountain tribes - could at first put up a more or less strong resistance, the main blow of the Sarmatians fell on the southern regions - the Caucasus and Ciscaucasia. The inhabitants of the North-Eastern Caucasus - the ancestors of the Vainakhs - did not avoid meeting new newcomers.
From about the 5th century. BC. the penetration of the Sarmatian ethnic component into the tribes located between the Terek and Sunzha rivers, as well as into more southern regions (Mesker-Yurt), is observed. Judging by archaeological materials, this penetration did not have the nature of a conquest with the wholesale extermination of the indigenous population.
The ancestors of the Ingush and Chechens who lived in the mountainous areas are known to us as Dzurdzuks or Durdzuks. By the time of the collision with the Sarmatians, they become an impressive fighting force, the support of which is sought by the rulers of the young and strengthened Georgian kingdom. According to research by Georgian historians, the ancestors of the Vainakhs and related Dagestan tribes occupied the territory of Kakheti at that time. Later they were assimilated by Georgian-speaking tribes. (Melikishvili G. A. “On the history of ancient Georgia.”)
According to the Georgian chronicle “Life of the Kartli Kings”, “Durdzuk... was the most famous among the sons of Caucasus.” Thus, the ancient Georgian chronicler tried to convey the position of the ancient Vainakh ethnic group in the system of relations between Georgia and neighboring peoples. The same chronicle indicates that the first king of Georgia, Pharnavaz, married “a maiden from the Caucasian family of Durdzuks.” The king of Kartli, Saurmag, expelled by his subordinates, finds shelter with the Dzurdzuks. “Saurmag fled with his mother and came to the country of the Durdzuks to his mother’s brother.” Here, in the mountains of Chechnya, he, himself a dzurdzuk on his mother’s side, gathers a fairly strong army and, with its help, returns the throne. “And no one was able to resist,” the chronicle says. For the help provided to him, Saurmag transfers to his new allies a vast tract of land stretching from Svaneti to Dagestan, where most of the Vainakh mountaineers who came with him settled. This is how the chronicler conveys it: “...planted in Mtiuleti, from Didoeti to Egrisi, which is Svaneti...”.
At the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd centuries. BC. Relations between the mountain Vainakh tribes and the Kartli kingdom deteriorated. A series of military clashes took place, as a result of which Georgia was forced to close the mountain passes with a system of fortifications.
The population of the southeastern part of Chechnya is directly related to the descendants of the tribes of the Kayakent-Kharachoev archaeological culture. Ancient authors call the tribes of the Sods and Akkis in the mountains of Chechnya, which are consonant with the names of the modern Chechen teips Sadoi and Akkkhii. The first, according to surviving legends, were once a large and strong tribe that occupied the entire eastern part of mountainous Chechnya from Chaberloy in the south to the foothills of the Dzhalki and Khulkhulau rivers in the north.
The proximity, and sometimes identity, of the objects of material and spiritual culture of Chechnya and Dagestan raises a completely logical conclusion about the ethnic kinship of the population of both regions and their attribution to the East Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestan) linguistic community.
So, by the end of the 3rd century. A complex ethnic situation has developed on the territory of Chechnya.
In the southwest, in the mountains, lived the direct descendants of the Koban tribes - the Dzurdzuks, who preserved their language and culture. In the east, in the territory from Argun to Dagestan, lived a population related to both the Kobans and the Dagestan peoples - the Avars and Andians. This is evidenced by the burial grounds discovered in Ichkeria (Yaman-Su, Bulan-Su, Gudermes, Galaity, Lekhkch-Kort), which have a traditional proximity to the antiquities of Dagestan. In the north, in the flat and foothill zones, lived a mixed Caucasian-Alan population, which retained many features of the material and everyday culture of the Caucasians, but lost its language and adopted the language of the newcomers.
I can say one thing about this article - a good study, but it does not touch on more ancient times and gives an answer to the question of the ancient homeland of the ancient Nakhs. There is no research on the ancient Hurrians here.

Let's look at the article “From the history of the Chechen people. Origin of the Chechens" on the Caucasus website. Again, I will select only interesting (for our research) excerpts from the article.
“The Vainakhs stood out among the Nakh peoples back in the first millennium BC. although in our times the Chechens and Ingush were charged with understanding the name “Vainakh” as “Our people”, and it seems to be “correct”, but it is fundamentally incorrect and “covers up” the real meaning of this name. In fact, Vainakhs were those Nakhs who carried out guard duty, i.e. military Nakhs, Nakh warriors"
The Nakhs occupied lands on both sides of the Main Caucasus Range for more than 3 millennia. They called themselves Nahi; people, so different from other tribes who stood at much lower levels of development. The Nakhs are close to the Matyans, Urartians and Hurrians, and had common roots with them in the ancient Aryan civilization.
.... It is no coincidence that they suggest that the Chechen people received their name from the name of the village Chechen-aul, and the Chechens; people who came from Urartu or the cities of the Hurrians. Such “researchers” carry out the orders of those who need the Chechens (like the “Ivans who do not remember kinship”) not to know who they are and where they come from. The reference to the possibility of deciphering ancient cuneiforms from the Vainakh language only emphasizes the fact that they; the closest surviving ancient languages ​​to cuneiform makers and confirms that the Chechen people have preserved the language of their ancestors with minimal changes.
..... The proximity of the Chechen language to the languages ​​of the Urartians, Hurrians and Sumerians does not mean that it comes from them. If the Chechens came specifically from Urartu, then they would have inherited cuneiform from them.
..... Traces of the ancestors of the Chechens exist before the time of Urartu and beyond. By the way, the state of Urartu was small by ancient standards; only 22 thousand sq. km., although strong and warlike.
Perhaps some of the Vainakhs carried out hired military service with the Urartians. However, the way of life and social structure of the Vainakhs and Urartians differ sharply. Urartu was already slave-owning and it existed after the collapse of the Great Aryan Power. The Chechens did not have their own written language, and they preserved a lot from their ancestors, passing them on from generation to generation, orally, without the changes that took place when rewriting history to please the power elites.
The Yaphedites, whose descendants were the Nakhs (they were joined already in the Caucasus by the descendants of other sons of Noah due to the similarity of beliefs, morals and way of life), spread to the Caucasus from south to north and then mainly from west to east, along the Main Caucasian ridge. The ancestors of most Chechens; nokhchi, ; are the Nakhmatyans, mentioned in the north-east of the Caucasus in the Armenian Geography at the beginning of the first millennium AD.
One of the modified names of the Chechens; Shasheny, in the Karabakh dialet sounds like special to the point of extravagance and brave to the point of madness. And the name Tsatsane clearly indicates the peculiarity of the Chechens.

The Nokhchi Chechens consider (apparently, by the call of blood) Nakhchevan to be named by their ancestors as a Nokhchi settlement, although the Armenians understand this name as a beautiful village. The slender, white, blue-eyed warriors on horses among the dark-skinned and short peasants were truly beautiful. There are traces of Nokhchi in southeastern Armenia in the region of Khoy (in Iran) and Akki in western Armenia in the area between the Greater and Lesser Zab rivers south of Erzurum. It should be noted that the Chechen people and the Vainakh communities that make them up are heterogeneous and include a dozen separate branches with different dialects.
And the great-ancestors of the Vainakhs came from different places; some quickly and with great losses, while others gradually and more safely, for example, like the Nokhchi from Mitanni. Even if in those times (more than three thousand years ago) it was long and lasted for tens and hundreds of years. Along the way, they left the settlements they founded, and some of them moved on, moving north for a reason that is now inexplicable to us, and those who remained merged with the local population.
The Turks spread among the mountaineers, mastered transhumance cattle breeding and occupied not only flat lands, but also mountain pastures. They adopted the economic way of the mountain peoples and mixed with them, imposing the power of their feudal rulers.
..... Only the Vainakhs and Ossetians were not digested in this Turkic cauldron and retained their identity, beliefs and way of life. The Chechens found themselves surrounded by Turks without mutual support from neighboring peoples.

Reading the ancient legends and epics of the Vainakh people, you can notice that this epic is very similar to the ancient legends and epics of other ancient peoples - Sumerian, Assyrian, Greek. And reading the legends about the Narts, the ancient inhabitants of the Caucasus, you understand that this epic has common features among all the peoples of the Caucasus. This means that the ancient history of the indigenous peoples of the Caucasus was common. In my opinion, the Narts are late Atlanteans (they were tall) or they were Hyperboreans (like the Greeks, almost all the gods there were from Hyperborea).

It seems we have read a lot of information on the history of the Vainakh people.
Now I will take my information (from my historical atlas of peoples, tribes, cultures) to try to create my opinion about the origin of the Vainakh people.

30 thousand years ago – the appearance of the first people in the Caucasus. These were the descendants of the ancient asuras (though by this time they had already lost their amazing abilities and great knowledge, degraded and turned into tribes with a primitive communal system). These were the Australoid tribes of the Baradostan archaeological culture. They came to the Caucasus from the south - from the territory of Mesopotamia.
9000 years BC - tribes of the Tenger culture appear in the northern Caucasus (this culture originated from the Gagarin culture). These are Caucasians (descendants of the late Atlanteans who settled in Western Europe, from the fact that the continent of Atlantis began to sink under the waters of the Atlantic, but these are already degraded Atlanteans, i.e. Atlanteans who lost most of their knowledge acquired during the existence of the Atlantean civilization, only the priests of these tribes still retained some of the ancient knowledge). They came from the north, from the territory of Eastern Europe, from the territories adjacent to the Don and Volga rivers. Australoids continued to live in the southern part of the Caucasus.
7500 years BC - the tribes of the Gagarin culture came to the northern Caucasus from the north, because the tribes of the Shigir culture (descendants of the Hyperboreans and ancestors of all Indo-European peoples) began to push them away from the north. The Australoids (tribes of the Zarzian culture) continue to live in the South Caucasus.
6500 years BC - the Jarmo culture formed in the southern half of the Caucasus. This culture arose as a result of the replacement of local Australoids and the Caucasians of the Khajilar culture who came there from the west, from the territory of Asia Minor. Now these are not Australoids (with dark skin color), but Caucasians of the Mediterranean type (with very dark skin), i.e. with an admixture of Australoids.
5700 BC - the entire territory of the Caucasus is inhabited by the Chatal-Guyuk tribes. These are Caucasians who came from the west, from the territory of Asia (according to some researchers, these tribes already knew how to build the first cities and were the creators of all civilizations in the Middle East, I have a different opinion, since already in the 9th millennium BC the Jericho state existed , created by the ancient people - the Akkadians and it was the Akkadians who created civilizations in Ancient Egypt and the Middle East).
5200 BC - the entire territory of the Caucasus is inhabited by tribes of the Shulaveri culture. Separate groups of tribes of the Gagarin culture continue to penetrate into the north of the Caucasus.
3500 BC - the entire territory of the Caucasus is inhabited by tribes of the Anatolian culture; tribes of this culture at this time inhabit all of Asia Minor, the northern part of Mesopotamia. In my opinion these are Hurrians (or proto-Hurrians).
3300 BC - the entire territory of the Caucasus and northern Mesopotamia is inhabited by tribes of the Kura-Arax Neolithic. These are the Hurrians - the most ancient people of Western Asia and the Caucasus. The name of this people is given by the name of the ancient city of Harran, which existed in ancient times in the north of Mesopotamia (this is in the far north of modern Iraq).
2500 BC - the foothills of the North Caucasus were reached by tribes of ancient Indo-Europeans (sometimes they are called “Aryans”, although in my opinion the Aryans are the ancient Indo-Iranians, who at that time lived in the territory of the Southern Urals and in the north of Kazakhstan, but there is no doubt that all these peoples were closely related and were part of the large Yamnaya (ancient Yamnaya culture)).
2300 BC - tribes of the Maykop culture settled in the western part of the North Caucasus. These are the ancestors of the ancient Luwians, Hittites and Palais (who would later move to Asia and create the Hittite state there). The Hurrians continue to live in the rest of the Caucasus.
1600 BC - tribes of the North Caucasian culture live in the North Caucasus, these are Indo-European tribes related to the Sindians and Meotians, who later lived for a long time on the territory of Krasnodar in the vicinity of the Scythians.
1100 BC - in the Caucasus there is a strong fragmentation of the entire Hurrian population into groups. In the northwestern part of the North Caucasus, the Sinds and Meorts continue to live. The North-Eastern Caucasus is inhabited by tribes of the Kayakent-Khorocheev culture. (perhaps these are ancient Nakh tribes - the ancestors of many Dagestan and Vainakh people). It was at this time that Vainakhs (Nakhi warriors) often began to leave in squads to serve the rich rulers of the states of the Middle East - Assyria, Mitanni, Urartu. Tribes of the Colchian culture live on the territory of Abkhazia and Western Georgia (perhaps these are the ancestors of the ancient Abkhazians and Circassians). Tribes of the Central Transcaucasian culture lived on the territory of Georgia (these are the ancestors of the Georgian tribes). Tribes of the Hedjaly-Kedabek culture lived on the territory of Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan (these are the ancestors of the Albanians and many peoples of Southern Dagestan). Tribes of the Mugan culture lived on the territory of South Azerbaijan (these are the ancestors of the peoples of South Azerbaijan - Manna, Caspian). The entire territory of the South Caucasus was inhabited by southern Hurrians (ancestors of the Urartians and other Hurrians of northern Mesopotamia).
900 BC - tribes of the Koban culture appear in the central regions of the North Caucasus (these are most likely the ancestors of the Circassian tribes who separated from the tribes of the Kayakent-Khorocheev culture, in my opinion these Circassian tribes separated from the general Nakh group of tribes, although I may be wrong) . The same tribes continue to live in the rest of the territory.
800 BC - by this time the following changes had occurred in the Caucasus - the Trialeti culture appeared in northern Georgia (these are most likely the Iberian tribes - northern Georgian tribes). In the southwestern part of the Caucasus (upper reaches of the Euphrates), the formation of the Armenian people was completed on the basis of the Palayans and Eastern Phrygians. The same tribes live in the rest of the territory.
700 BC - the Scythians penetrate into the north-east of the Caucasus (northern Dagestan), who by this time had populated a vast territory from the Caspian Sea to the Danube.
550 BC - the Sauromatians penetrate into the north-east of the Caucasus (northern Dagestan), displacing the Scythians from there. The Medes penetrate the south of Azerbaijan and begin to push the indigenous peoples of Azerbaijan - the Mannaeans and Albanians - to the north.
500 BC – Persians penetrate into the south of Azerbaijan, taking the place of the Medes. In the extreme south of the Caucasus and in the north of Mesopotamia, the Hurrians completely disappeared - their place was universally taken by the Arameans.
300 BC - the Urartu people disappear in the southern Caucasus, their place is taken by Armenians.
150 BC - the Aorses come to the North Caucasus from the territory of the northern Caspian region, these are tribes related to the Sarmatians. The Aors are the ancestors of the Alans.
120 AD - Alans populate all the steppes between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
450 - Turkic tribes of the Khazars, who came to the south of the Volga together with the invasion of the Huns, begin to penetrate into the North Caucasus. The territory inhabited by the Alans is shrinking. Many Alans go to the mountains. It seems to me that modern Ossetians are Alans, but they mixed with part of the Western Vainakh tribes who adopted the Alan language.
In the 6th century, the Avar state of Serir was created, apparently some of the Vainakh tribes were subordinate to this state.
In the 9th century, the Alan state was created (it was created at a time when the Khazar Khaganate began to weaken). It is most likely that at this time the allies of the Alanian state were the Vainakh tribes, who together fought with the Khazars, and later with other Turkic-speaking Kocheski (Torks, Pechenegs, Cumans).
1067 - the state of Serir disintegrates due to religious strife (Jews, Muslims and Christians) into many small feudal estates.
1100 - nomadic Turkic-speaking tribes of the Polovtsians dominate in the steppes of the North Caucasus from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.
1239 - The Alanian state was destroyed as a result of the invasion of Batu's troops.
1250 - nomadic Turkic-speaking tribes of the Horde (nomadic tribes of the Golden Horde) dominate in the steppes of the North Caucasus from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.
In the 14th century, the Chechens, having recovered from the Mongol invasion, formed the state of Simsir, which was later destroyed by the troops of Timur. After the collapse of the Golden Horde, the lowland regions of the Chechen Republic came under the control of Kabardian and Dagestan feudal lords.
1550 - nomadic Turkic-speaking tribes of the Nogais (nomadic tribes of the Nogai Horde) dominate in the steppes of the North Caucasus from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea.
1600 – Russian Cossack settlements began to appear in the steppes of the North Caucasus.

In my opinion, most of the history of the origin of the Vainakh people took place on the territory of the North Caucasus and is connected with the neighboring Caucasian peoples. As can be seen from the above information, already at the end of the 2nd millennium BC - these are the times of the Kayauent-Khorochoi culture), the Nakh (Vainakh) tribes switched to military democracy, i.e. Among the Nakh people, the presence of wealth (increasing prestige in front of others) is of great importance. For this reason, part of the Vainakhs (warriors) (ancient Nakhs) were in ancient times warriors - Hurrians and served as entire squads to the kings of Assyria, Mitanni, and later the kings of Urartu. Such a tradition (military service for wealthy rulers existed among many nations, even Russian squads often served in ancient Georgia, there are even legends about the princes Sloven and Rus, who with their squads also served in Urartu, Mitanni and the states of the Middle East).
Since the death of the state of Urartu, the Vainakh military squads probably served in other states of the Caucasus - the Colchis kingdom, Iberia, Albania. You can read about this in this article. There is no complete information that the entire Vainakh people came to the northern Caucasus. There is no contradiction that Vainakhs (warriors) lived in Shemar; these were probably settlements of Vainakhs (warriors) with their families; such settlements can certainly be found in other places in Western Asia. After all, they served for long periods, as was the case during the time of Alexander the Great. Warriors from different nations served in his army and they also lived with their families.
Here is my brief vision of the history of the Vainakh people (ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush). Perhaps I’m wrong about something, and I continue to research the ancient history of the peoples of the world and some additions and changes in my views are possible.

Reviews

Hello, Anatoly! I will only touch on those points of your article that certainly concern the Armenians: 1) “The Nokhchi Chechens consider (apparently by the call of blood) Nakhchevan to be named by their ancestors as a Nokhchi settlement, although the Armenians understand this name as a beautiful village...” Firstly , not Nakhchevan, but Nakhichevan. The name of this word in Armenian does not mean “beautiful village”, but “place of the first settlement”. It is believed that it was in this territory that Noah and his family settled when they descended from Ararat. Nakhijevan is, indeed, the place of settlement of future ancestors, both Armenians and Chechens, and other Caucasian tribes. So both have the right to call this region their first homeland. 2) In the southwestern part of the Caucasus (upper reaches of the Euphrates), on the basis of the Palayans and Eastern Phrygians, the formation of the Armenian people was completed... “Based on” is an incorrect definition, since the Armenian people were formed not on the basis of the Phrygians, but on the basis of the tribe of the ancestor Hayk and autochthonous tribes of the entire Armenian Highlands, who are collectively called “Urartians”, and more precisely, it must be said “Araratians”. The Phrygians only assimilated with the Armenian people, but did not create it. With friendly greetings from Armenia.

In any case, the “tribe of the ancestor Hayk” belonged to a group of Indo-European Paleo-Balkan tribes, among which were the Phrygians, some of whom, in addition to finding a homeland in Phrygia, migrated further to the east. Therefore, some of the Phrygians could well have settled on the Armenian Highlands. Another part of the Phrygians migrated even further - to northern India along with the Aryans.

The daily audience of the Proza.ru portal is about 100 thousand visitors, who in total view more than half a million pages according to the traffic counter, which is located to the right of this text. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors.

Chechens are the oldest people of the Caucasus. They appeared on the territory of the North Caucasus in the 13th century as a result of the division of several ancient cities and are the largest ethnic group living in this territory. This people made their way along the Main Caucasus Range through the Argun Gorge and eventually settled in the mountainous part of the Republic of Chechnya. This people has its own centuries-old traditions and unique ancient culture. In addition to the name Chechens, the people are called Chechens, Nakhche and Nokhchi.

Where live

Today, the majority of Chechens live on the territory of the Russian Federation in the Chechen Republic and Ingushetia; there are Chechens in Dagestan, Stavropol Territory, Kalmykia, Volgograd, Astrakhan, Tyumen, Saratov regions, Moscow, North Ossetia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

Number

As a result of the 2016 population census, the number of Chechens living in the Chechen Republic amounted to 1,394,833 people. There are about 1,550,000 Chechens living in the world.

Story

Several settlements took place in the history of this people. About 5,000 Chechen families moved to the territory of the Ottoman Empire after the Caucasian War in 1865. This movement is called Muhajirism. Today, the bulk of the Chechen diasporas in Turkey, Jordan and Syria are represented by the descendants of those settlers.

In 1944, half a million Chechens were deported to Central Asia; in 1957 they were allowed to return to their former homes, but some Chechens remained in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

After the two Chechen wars, many Chechens left their homeland and went to Arab countries, Turkey and Western European countries, regions of the Russian Federation and countries of the former USSR, especially Georgia.

Language

The Chechen language belongs to the Nakh branch of the Nakh-Dagestan language family, which is included in the hypothetical North Caucasian superfamily. It is distributed mainly in the territory of the Chechen Republic, in Ingushetia, Georgia, some regions of Dagestan: Khasavyurt, Kazbekovsky, Novolaksky, Babayurt, Kizilyurt and other regions of Russia. Partial distribution of the language occurs in Turkey, Syria and Jordan. Before the 1994 war, the number of Chechen speakers was 1 million.

Since the Nakh group of languages ​​includes Ingush, Chechen and Batsbi languages, Ignush and Chechens understand each other without an interpreter. These two peoples are united by the concept “Vainakh”, which translates as “our people”. But these peoples do not understand Batsbi, since it was heavily influenced by the Georgian language due to the residence of the Batsbi in the gorges of Georgia.

In the Chechen language there are a number of dialects and the following dialects:

  • Shatoisky
  • Cheberloevsky
  • planar
  • Akkinsky (Aukhovsky)
  • Sharoi
  • Itum-Kalinsky
  • Melkhinsky
  • Kistinsky
  • Galanchozhsky

Residents of the vicinity of Grozny speak the Chechen language using the flat dialect; literature, including fiction, newspapers, magazines, scientific research and textbooks, is written in it. Works of classical world literature have been translated into Chechen. Chechen words are difficult, but they sound very beautiful.

Written language until 1925 was based on Arabic. Then, until 1938, it developed on the basis of the Latin alphabet, and from this year to the present, the Chechen written language is based on the Cyrillic alphabet. There are many borrowings in the Chechen language, up to 700 words from Turkic languages ​​and up to 500 from Georgian. There are many borrowings from Russian, Arabic, Ossetian, Persian and Dagestan. Gradually, foreign words appeared in the Chechen language, for example: rally, export, parliament, kitchen, dance, mouthpiece, avant-garde, taxi and broth.


Religion

Most Chechens profess the Shafi'i madhhab of Sunni Islam. Among the Chechens, Sufi Islam is represented by the tariqas: Naqshbandiya and Qadiriya, which are divided into religious groups called vird brotherhoods. Their total number among the Chechens is 32. The largest Sufi brotherhood in Chechnya is the Zikrists - followers of the Chechen Qadiri sheikh Kunta-Hadzhi Kishiev, and the small species that descended from him: Mani-sheikh, Bammat-Girey Khadzhi and Chimmirzy.

Names

Chechen names include three components:

  1. Names borrowed from other languages, mainly through the Russian language.
  2. Originally Chechen names.
  3. Names borrowed from Arabic and Persian languages.

A large number of old names are derived from the names of birds and animals. For example, Borz is a wolf, Lecha is a falcon. There are names containing the structure of the verb form, names in the form of independent participles, formed from adjectives and qualitative adjectives. For example, Dika is translated as “good”. There are also compound names in the Chechen language, which are made up of two words: soltan and bek. Mostly female names are borrowed from the Russian language: Raisa, Larisa, Louise, Rose.

When pronouncing and writing names, it is important to remember the dialect and its differences, since a name pronounced differently can have different meanings, for example, Abuyazid and Abuyazit, Yusup and Yusap. In Chechen names, the stress always falls on the first syllable.


Food

Previously, the basis of the diet of the Chechen people was mainly corn porridge, shish kebab, wheat stew and homemade bread. The cuisine of this people is one of the simplest and most ancient. The main products for cooking remain lamb and poultry; the main components of many dishes are hot seasonings, garlic, onions, thyme, and pepper. An important component of dishes is greens. Chechen dishes are very satisfying, nutritious and healthy. A lot of food is prepared from cheese, wild garlic, cottage cheese, corn, pumpkin and dried meat. Chechens love meat broths, beef, boiled meat, and do not eat pork at all.

The meat is served with dumplings made from corn or wheat flour and garlic seasoning. One of the main positions in Chechen cuisine is occupied by flour products with various fillings from potatoes, cottage cheese, pumpkin, nettles and wild garlic. Chechens bake several types of bread:

  • barley
  • wheat
  • corn

Siskal cakes are baked from corn flour, which were previously carried along with dried meat and taken on the road. Such food always satisfied hunger well and nourished the body.


Life

The main occupation of the Chechens has long been cattle breeding, hunting, beekeeping and arable farming. Women were always responsible for household work, weaving cloth, making carpets, burkas, felt, and sewing shoes and dresses.

Housing

Chechens live in auls - villages. Due to the natural conditions of the area, the dwellings differ. Chechens living in the mountains have houses built of stone and are called sakli. Such sakli were also built from adobe; they can be erected in a week. Unfortunately, many had to do this when villages were often attacked by enemies. On the plains, mostly turluch houses were built, neat and bright inside. Wood, clay and straw were used for construction. The windows in the houses are without frames, but are equipped with shutters to protect against wind and cold. There is a canopy at the entrance that protects from heat and rain. The houses were heated by fireplaces. Each house has a kunatskaya, which consists of several rooms. The owner spends the whole day in them and returns to his family in the evening. The house has a yard surrounded by fence. A special oven is built in the yard in which bread is baked.

During construction, it was important to take into account safety and reliability, the ability to defend themselves if the enemy attacks. In addition, there had to be hayfields, water, arable land and pastures nearby. The Chechens took care of the land and even chose places on rocks to build houses.

The most common in mountain villages were one-story houses with flat roofs. The Chechens also built houses with 2 floors, towers with 3 or 5 floors. The residential building, tower and outbuildings together were called estates. Depending on the topography of the mountains, the development of estates was horizontal or vertical.


Appearance

In anthropology, Chechens are a mixed type. Eye color can range from black to dark brown and from blue to light green. Hair color - from black to dark brown. The nose of Chechens is often concave and upturned. Chechens are tall and well-built, the women are very beautiful.

Everyday clothing of a Chechen man consists of the following elements:

  • checkmen, sewn from gray or dark fabric;
  • arkhaluks, or beshmets, of various colors, were worn in white in the summer;
  • narrowed trousers;
  • cloth leggings and chiriki (shoes without soles).

Elegant dresses are trimmed with braiding, and special attention is paid to the decoration of weapons. In bad weather they wore a bashlyk or burka, which Chechen women sewed very skillfully. Shoes were mainly made from rawhide. Many wore Caucasian soft boots. The rich wore boots and leggings made of black morocco, to which soles of buffalo leather were sometimes sewn.

The main headdress of a Chechen is a cone-shaped papakha, which ordinary people made from sheepskin, and the rich made from the skins of Bukhara lamb. In the summer they wore a felt hat.

Bone gaztris were sewn onto men's suits as decoration, and a belt with silver plaques was worn. The image was completed with a dagger made by local craftsmen.

Women wore:

  • long shirts to the knees, blue or red;
  • wide trousers that were tied at the ankles;
  • On top of the shirt they put on a long dress with wide and long sleeves;
  • young women and girls wore dresses gathered at the waist with a belt made of fabric. Elderly women's dresses are wide and without pleats or belts;
  • the head was covered with a scarf made of silk or wool. Elderly women wore bandages under a scarf that tightly fit their heads and went down their backs in the form of a bag. Braided hair was placed in it. Such a headdress was also very common in Dagestan;
  • Women wore dudes as shoes. Rich families wore galoshes, shoes and shoes made locally or in the city.

Women's clothing from a wealthy family was distinguished by sophistication and luxury. It was sewn from expensive fabrics and trimmed with silver or gold braid. Rich women loved to wear jewelry: silver belts, bracelets and earrings.


In winter, Chechens wore a wool-lined beshmet with metal or silver clasps. The sleeves of clothing below the elbow were split and fastened with buttons made of simple or silver threads. Beshmet was sometimes worn in the summer.

During Soviet times, Chechens switched to urban clothing, but many men retained the traditional headdress, which they rarely parted with. Today, many men and old people wear a hat, Circassian coats and beshmets. In Chechnya, men wear Caucasian shirts with a stand-up collar.

Women's national costume has survived to this day much more. And now older women wear chokhta, dresses with trousers and homemade dudes. Young women and girls prefer urban-cut dresses, but they are made with long sleeves and a closed collar. Scarves and shoes today are worn in urban areas.

Character

Chechens are cheerful, impressionable and witty people, but at the same time they are distinguished by severity, treachery and suspicion. These character traits were probably developed among the people during centuries of struggle. Even the enemies of the Chechens have long recognized that this nation is brave, indomitable, dexterous, resilient and calm in the fight.

The ethical code of honor of Konahalla is important for Chechens, which is a universal code of conduct for any man, regardless of his religion. This code reflects all the moral standards that a believer and a worthy son of his people possesses. This code is ancient and existed among the Chechens back in the Alan era.

Chechens never raise a hand against their children because they do not want them to grow up to be cowards. These people are very attached to their homeland, to which various touching songs and poems are dedicated.


Traditions

Chechens have always been distinguished by their hospitality. Even in ancient times, they always helped travelers, giving them food and shelter. This is customary in every family. If a guest liked something in the house, the owners should give it to him. When there are guests, the owner takes a place closer to the door, thereby showing that the guest is the most important in the house. The owner must remain at the table until the last guest. It is indecent to interrupt a meal first. If a relative, even a distant one, or a neighbor comes into the house, younger family members and young men should serve him. Women should not show themselves to guests.

Many people think that women's rights are violated in Chechnya, but in fact this is far from the case. A woman who was able to raise a worthy son, along with other family members, has the right to vote during decision-making. When a woman enters the room, the men present must stand up. When a woman comes to visit, special ceremonies and customs are also held in her honor.

When a man and a woman walk side by side, she must lag behind one step, the man must take on the danger first. The young wife must first feed his parents and then himself. If there is even the most distant relationship between a girl and a guy, marriage between them is prohibited, but this is not a gross violation of traditions.

The father is always considered the head of the family, the woman looks after the household. The husband and wife do not call each other by name, but say “my wife” and “my husband”, “the one in the house”, “the mother of my children”, “the owner of this house”.

It is humiliating and insulting for a man to interfere in women's affairs. When a son brings a daughter-in-law into the house, she bears the main responsibilities of the household. She has to get up earlier than everyone else, do the cleaning and go to bed later than everyone else. Previously, if a woman did not want to follow the family rules, she could be punished or kicked out.


The daughters-in-law are raised by the husband's mother, who is called nana. A young wife should not speak freely with her mother-in-law, nor should she appear in front of her with her head uncovered and in an unkempt appearance. Nana can shift some of her responsibilities to her eldest daughter-in-law. In addition to housekeeping, the husband's mother must observe all traditions and family rituals. The eldest woman in the family was always considered the keeper of the home.

It is considered very uncultured to interrupt an elder and start a conversation without his request or permission. Younger people should always let the older ones pass and greet him politely and respectfully. It is a great insult for a man if someone touches his hat. This is tantamount to a public slap in the face. If children get into a fight, the first thing parents do is scold their child and only then begin to figure out who is wrong and who is right. If a son starts smoking, the father, through the mother, must instill in him that this is very harmful and unacceptable, and he himself must give up this habit.

This people has a custom of avoidance that prohibits showing feelings in public. It applies to all family members. Everyone should behave with restraint in public. The Chechens still preserve the cult of fire and hearth, the tradition of oaths and curses by fire.

Many rites and rituals are associated with weapons and war. It was considered a shame and cowardice to draw a sword from its sheath in front of an enemy or offender and not use it. At 63, a man reached the age of untying his belt and could go out without a weapon. To this day, the Chechens have preserved such a custom as blood feud.

A Chechen wedding consists of many rituals and traditions. The groom was forbidden to see the bride before the wedding and for some time after the celebration. A wedding dress is at the same time a festive outfit for girls and young women. It is sewn from bright or white silk; there is a continuous slit in the front of the dress. A decoration in the form of silver buttons made in Kubachi is sewn on both sides of the chest area. The dress is complemented by a silver belt of the Caucasian type. A white scarf is put on the head, which completely covers the bride's head and hair. Sometimes a veil is worn over the scarf.


Culture

Chechen folklore is diverse and includes genres that are characteristic of the oral folk art of many peoples:

  • everyday tales, fairy tales, about animals;
  • mythology;
  • heroic epic;
  • lyrical songs, labor songs, ritual songs, heroic-epic songs, lullabies;
  • legends;
  • puzzles;
  • sayings and proverbs;
  • children's folklore (riddles, tongue twisters, counting rhymes, songs);
  • religious folklore (stories, songs, nazms, hadiths);
  • creativity of tulliks and zhukhurgs;

Chechen mythology, the names of deities who personified natural elements, have been preserved quite fragmentarily. The musical folklore of the Chechens is bright and original; they amazingly dance the national Chechen dance Nokhchi and Lezginka (Lovzar). Music is of great importance to this people. With its help, they express hatred, look to the future and remember the past. Many of the national musical instruments are still common today:

  • dechig-pondar
  • adhyokhu-pondar
  • zurna
  • pipe shiedag
  • bagpipes
  • drum vota
  • tambourine

The instruments were used for ensemble and solo performance. During the holidays, people play different instruments together.

Famous personalities

Among the Chechen people there are many outstanding personalities in politics, sports, creativity, science and journalism:


Buvaysar Saitiev, 3-time Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling
  • Movsar Mintsaev, opera singer;
  • Makhmud Esambaev, People's Artist of the USSR, master of dance;
  • Umar Beksultanov, composer;
  • Abuzar Aydamirov, poet and writer, classic of Chechen literature;
  • Abdul-Khamid Khamidov, playwright, brilliant talent of Chechen literature;
  • Katy Chokaev, linguist, professor, Doctor of Philology;
  • Raisa Akhmatova, national poetess;
  • Sherip Inal, screenwriter and film director;
  • Kharcho Shukri, calligraphy artist;
  • Salman Yandarov, surgeon, orthopedist, candidate of medical sciences;
  • Buvaysar Saitiev, 3-time Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling;
  • Salman Khasimikov, 4-time freestyle wrestling champion;
  • Zaurbek Baysangurov, boxer, twice European champion, world champion in first and welterweight;
  • Lechi Kurbanov, European champion in Kyokushinkai karate.

The Chechens themselves call themselves Nokhchi. Some translate this as Noah's people. Representatives of this people live not only in Chechnya, but also in some regions of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Georgia. In total, there are more than one and a half million Chechens in the world.

The name “Chechen” appeared long before the revolution. But in the pre-revolutionary era and in the first decades of Soviet power, some other small Caucasian peoples were often called Chechens - for example, Ingush, Batsbi, Georgian Kists. There is an opinion that these are essentially the same people, individual groups of which, due to historical circumstances, were isolated from each other.

How was the word “Chechen” born?

There are several versions of the origin of the word “Chechen”. According to one of them, it is a Russian transliteration of the word “shashan”, which was used to designate this people by their Kabardian neighbors. For the first time it is mentioned as the “people of the Sasan” in the Persian chronicle of the 13th-14th centuries by Rashid ad-Din, which talks about the war with the Tatar-Mongols.

According to another version, this designation comes from the name of the village of Bolshoy Chechen, where at the end of the 17th century the Russians first encountered the Chechens. As for the name of the village, it dates back to the 13th century, when the headquarters of the Mongol Khan Sechen was located here.

Starting from the 18th century, the ethnonym “Chechens” appeared in official sources in Russian and Georgian, and subsequently other peoples borrowed it. Chechnya became part of Russia on January 21, 1781.

Meanwhile, a number of researchers, in particular A. Vagapov, believe that this ethnonym was used by the neighbors of the Chechens long before the Russians appeared in the Caucasus.

Where did the Chechen people come from?

The early stage of the history of the formation of the Chechen people remains hidden from us by the darkness of history. It is possible that the ancestors of the Vainakhs (the so-called speakers of Nakh languages, for example, Chechens and Ingush) migrated from Transcaucasia to the north of the Caucasus, but this is only a hypothesis.

This is the version put forward by Doctor of Historical Sciences Georgiy Anchabadze:
“The Chechens are the oldest indigenous people of the Caucasus, their ruler bore the name “Caucasus,” from which the name of the area came. In the Georgian historiographical tradition, it is also believed that the Caucasus and his brother Lek, the ancestor of the Dagestanis, settled the then uninhabited territories of the North Caucasus from the mountains to the mouth of the Volga River.”

There are also alternative versions. One of them says that the Vainakhs are the descendants of the Hurrian tribes that went north and settled Georgia and the North Caucasus. This is confirmed by the similarity of languages ​​and culture.

It is also possible that the ancestors of the Vainakhs were the Tigrids, a people who lived in Mesopotamia (in the area of ​​the Tigris River). If you believe the ancient Chechen chronicles - teptars, the point of departure of the Vainakh tribes was in Shemaar (Shemar), from where they settled to the North and North-East of Georgia and the North Caucasus. But, most likely, this applies only to part of the Tukhkums (Chechen communities), since there is evidence of settlement along other routes.

Most modern Caucasus scholars are inclined to believe that the Chechen nation was formed in the 16th-18th centuries as a result of the unification of the Vainakh peoples who were developing the foothills of the Caucasus. The most important unifying factor for them was Islamization, which occurred in parallel with the settlement of the Caucasian lands. One way or another, it cannot be denied that the core of the Chechen ethnic group is the Eastern Vainakh ethnic groups.

From the Caspian Sea to Western Europe

Chechens did not always live in one place. Thus, their earliest tribes lived in an area stretching from the mountains near Enderi to the Caspian Sea. But, since they often stole cattle and horses from the Greben and Don Cossacks, in 1718 they attacked them, chopped up many, and drove the rest away.

After the end of the Caucasian War in 1865, about 5,000 Chechen families moved to the territory of the Ottoman Empire. They began to be called muhajirs. Today their descendants represent the bulk of the Chechen diasporas in Turkey, Syria and Jordan.
In February 1944, more than half a million Chechens were deported by order of Stalin to areas of Central Asia. On January 9, 1957, they received permission to return to their previous place of residence, but a number of migrants remained in their new homeland - in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

The first and second Chechen wars led to a significant number of Chechens moving to Western European countries, Turkey and Arab countries. The Chechen diaspora in Russia has also increased.

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