Chechnya

The National Anthem

Of Chechnya

Death or Freedom

came onto this earth when the wolf cubs began to whine under the she-wolf’s feet.

Our names were picked for us at day-break while the lion roared.

Our gentle mothers nurtured us in our eagle nests.

And our fathers taught us to tame the oxen of the forests.

Our mothers dedicated us to our Nation and our Homeland.

And we shall rise up to the last one if our nation needs us.

We grew up free as the eagles, princes of the mountains.

There is no threshold from which we shall shy away.

Sooner shall cliffs of granite begin to melt like molten lead than any one of us shall lose in battle the honor of our noble nature.

Sooner shall the earth begin to crack in silence from the heat than we shall lie under the earth, having lost our honor.

Never to bow our heads to anyone, we give our sacred pledge.

To die or to live in freedom is our fate.

Our sisters heal our brothers’ bloody wounds with their songs.

Our loving women see us off on our campaigns.

If we shall be forced to starve from famine, we shall gnaw the roots of trees.

If we shall be deprived of water, we shall drink from the dew of the grass.

We came onto this earth when the wolf cubs began to whine under the she-wolf’s feet.

We pledge our lives to God, our Nation and our Homeland.

The methods that Russia has used to deal with the break-away Republic of Chechnya has caught the eye of the world media, and not without good cause. This dynamic portion of the former Soviet Union is seen as a predecessor of things to come from other pieces of the dead communist giant. So many different peoples and cultures were pulled into the grasp of Russia for economic or tactical reasons. Now that Russia is waning in power, these peoples may chose to seize the opportunity to regain their independence, hundreds of years lost in some cases, and reestablish their own ethnic identity.

As we will see, Chechnya’s history with Russia and the Soviet Union is a long and checkered past. The Chechen people suffered numerous degradations and humiliations at the hands of their conquerors. Throughout their history the Chechens have attempted in some form to resist the Russians, but time and time again, the Russians held them down to have access to what they perceived as a key piece of land. It would be absurd to say that the sol...

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...rude oil to be processed into fuels. Oil continually flowed in from Russia, allowing the Chechens to process it and usually turn around and sell it as their own. Whether oil was legally acquired or not, the Chechens had little difficulty selling it back to the Russians, proving that Russians had a hand in criminal activity in Chechnya as well.

Literally millions of tons of military grade firepower and ammunition, as well as tanks, planes, and other vehicles were hijacked from Russian trains during this time. What the press failed to point out at this time was that Yeltsin never rerouted the trains, and no investigation went into discovering how the information of train manifests and cargo was being released to the Chechens. The Chechen airport also operated without law at this time. Russia proclaims that planeloads of narcotics flew in and out of Groznyi each day, providing money to fuel other criminal operations.

This all went on for quite awhile, and while criminal activity was rampant in Chechnya, many say that it was no worse than in Russia herself. By the spring of 1994 though, Dudayev was being formally challenged for his power. Since one of the candidates against Dudayev wa