Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, close to the Caspian Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country of Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia-Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.
The Caucasus or Caucasia, is a transcontinental region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically been considered as a natural barrier between Eastern Europe and West Asia.
The Nart sagas are a series of tales originating from the North Caucasus. They form much of the basic mythology of the ethnic groups in the area, including Abazin, Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian and to some extent Chechen-Ingush folklore.
A teip is a Chechen and Ingush tribal organization or clan, self-identified through descent from a common ancestor or geographic location. It is a sub-unit of the tukkhum and shahar. There are about 150 Chechen and 120 Ingush teips. Teips played an important role in the socioeconomic life of the Chechen and Ingush peoples before and during the Middle Ages, and continue to be an important cultural part to this day.
The history of Chechnya may refer to the history of the Chechens, of their land Chechnya, or of the land of Ichkeria.
The Chechens, historically also known as Kisti and Durdzuks, are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus. They are the largest ethnic group of the North Caucasus and refer to themselves as Nokhchiy. The endonym Nokhchiy is thought to be derived from the name of Prophet Noah and it means 'descendant(s) of Noah'. The vast majority of Chechens are Muslims and live in Chechnya, a republic of Russia.
Georgian mythology refers to the mythology of pre-Christian Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. The mythology of the Kartvelian peoples is believed by many scholars to have formed part of the religions of the kingdoms of Diauehi, Colchis and Iberia.
Satanaya is a mythological figure who appears in many cycles of the Nart sagas of the North Caucasus.
The Dvals were a ethnographic group of Georgians. their lands lying on both sides of the central Greater Caucasus mountains, somewhere between the Darial and Mamison gorges. This historic territory mostly covers the north of Kartli, parts of the Racha and Khevi regions in Georgia and south of Ossetia in Russia.
The Nakh peoples are a group of North Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cultural similarities. These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen, Ingush and Bats peoples of the North Caucasus, including closely related minor or historical groups.
The deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, or Ardakhar Genocide, and also known as Operation Lentil, was the Soviet forced transfer of the whole of the Vainakh populations of the North Caucasus to Central Asia on February 23, 1944, during World War II. The expulsion was ordered by NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria after approval by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, as a part of a Soviet forced settlement program and population transfer that affected several million members of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union between the 1930s and the 1950s.
Pkharmat is a legendary hero of the Vainakh people who stole fire for mankind, thus allowing them to forge metal, cook food, and light their homes, and uniting the people into a nation. For this Pkharmat was punished by being chained to Mount Kazbek. Pkharmat is the Vainakh equivalent of the Greek hero Prometheus and the Georgian hero Amirani, among others.
Amjad Jaimoukha was a Circassian writer, publicist and historian, who wrote a number of books on North Caucasian – specifically Circassian and Chechen – culture and folklore. According to the Circassian Encyclopaedia, "Jaimoukha was perhaps the most important writer on Circassian issues." In particular, he was active in promoting and assisting a new crop of Circassian and non-Circassian writers working on raising the profile of Caucasian issues at the global level.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mongols launched two long, massive invasions of the territory of modern Chechnya and Ingushetia, which included the lands of Alania in the West, Simsir in the Northeast, and the Georgian-allied polity of Durdzuketia in the South. They caused massive destruction and human death for the Durdzuks, but also greatly shaped the people they became afterward. However, this came at great cost to them, and the states they had built were utterly destroyed, as were their previous organized systems. These invasions are among the most significant occurrences in Chechen and Ingush history, and have had long-ranging effects on Chechnya, Ingushetia and their peoples.
The Durdzuks, also known as Dzurdzuks, was a medieval exonym of the 9th-18th centuries used mainly in Georgian, Arabic, but also Armenian sources in reference to the Vainakh peoples.
The Chechen wolf, or gray wolf, is the national animal of the Chechen nation.
Chechnya was first incorporated as a whole into the Russian Empire in 1859 after the decades-long Caucasian War. Tsarist rule was marked by a transition into modern times, including the formation of a Chechen bourgeoisie, the emergence of social movements, reorientation of the Chechen economy towards oil, heavy ethnic discrimination at the expense of Chechens and others in favor of Russians and Kuban Cossacks, and a religious transition among the Chechens towards the Qadiri tariqa of Sufism.
Tusholi (Тушоли) is a goddess of Spring and fertility in Ingush and Chechen mythology and the daughter of the supreme god Dyala.
The almaz, roughly translated as various "feral forest-man" or "stone spirit", is a mythical beast that is considered to be an evil forest creature with magical powers residing in its hair that exists in Chechen and Ingush folk beliefs and Circassian folk beliefs. The first "attestation" of it in writing was by a Bavarian captive of the Mongols, but it is present in the national folklore of Chechens and Ingush and of Circassians. The male almaz is said to be hairy and hideous, and have an axe embedded in its chest, while the female is very beautiful with large breasts and golden hair, and has a "favorite pastime" of dancing naked at night under the moon. The almaz is said to have magical powers residing in its hair, but if the hair is removed or even grabbed, it may be rendered helpless. It has been theorized by some to have arisen under Mongolian influence, either during the Mongol invasions of Dzurdzuketia or the intervening period where the northern Dzurdzuk state of Simsir was subjugated to the Mongol-controlled Golden Horde. The word almaz is a loan from Mongolian where it originally meant "forest man". Amjad Jaimoukha however suggested that the name "almaz" may have started to have been used by North Caucasians for an already existent native concept during the sojourn of the Golden Horde of Simsir.
Mongol invasion of Circassia refers to the invasion of Circassia by the Mongolian Empire. During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mongols launched massive invasions of the territory of Circassia. William of Rubruck, who travelled to the Caucasus in 1253, wrote that the Circassians had never "bowed to Mongol rule", despite the fact that whole fifth of the Mongol armies were at that time devoted to the task of crushing the Circassian resistance. Circassians made use of both the forests and the mountains, and waged a successful guerrilla war, maintaining their freedom to some extent.
