Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev (born Dudin Musa-Khant Dzhokhar; 15 February 1944 – 21 April 1996) was a Chechen politician, revolutionary and military leader of the 1990s Chechen independence movement from Russia. He served as the first president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 1991 until his assassination in 1996. Dudayev had previously served as a senior officer in the Soviet Air Forces.
Dudayev was born in Chechnya in 1944, days before his family and the entire Chechen nation were deported to Central Asia by the Soviet regime in the Chechen genocide as part of an ethnic cleansing program which affected several million members of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union between the 1930s and 1950s. His family was allowed to return to his native Chechnya in 1956, after Joseph Stalin’s death. From 1962, Dudayev served in the Soviet Air Forces, reaching the rank of major general. He commanded strategic nuclear bomber aircraft divisions based in Poltava and Tartu, and was awarded several state orders of the Soviet Union, most notably the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star.
In 1991, Dudayev refused orders from Moscow to suppress Estonia's independence movement, and subsequently resigned from the Soviet Armed Forces before returning to Chechnya. He became president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria after a referendum in October 1991, and unilaterally declared the republic's independence from the Soviet Union. In the First Chechen War (1994–1996), Dudayev organized a successful resistance against Russian forces before he was assassinated by a Russian airstrike. Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, was renamed Dzhokhar-Ghala in Dudayev's honor between 1996 and 2005.
Early life and military career
thumb|Memorial plaque in [[Tartu]]
Dudayev was born in Yalkhoroy from the Tsechoy teip in the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), just a few days before the forced deportation of his family together with the entire Chechen population on the orders of Lavrentiy Beria. He was the thirteenth youngest child of veterinarian Musa and Rabiat Dudayev. He spent the first 13 years of his life in internal exile in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. His family was only able to return to Chechnya in 1957. Following the 1957 repatriation of the Chechens, he studied at evening school in Checheno-Ingushetia and qualified as an electrician. In 1962, after two years studying electronics in Vladikavkaz, he entered the Tambov Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots from which he graduated in 1966. Dudayev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1968 and from 1971 to 1974 studied at the prestigious Gagarin Air Force Academy. He married Alla, a Russian poet and the daughter of a Soviet officer, with whom he had three children (a daughter and two sons). Reportedly from 1986 to 1987, Dudayev had participated in bombing raids in western Afghanistan. Dudayev had stated he was a "dedicated Muslim." He politically stressed Chechen nationalism as president. Many of his military and political opponents who questioned his Muslim faith often made reference to his actions against the Mujahideen forces. For example, Sergei Stepashin asserted Dudayev participated in carpet bombing (a statement probably motivated by spite). These allegations were denied by Dudayev himself. Dudayev rose steadily in the Air Force, assuming command of the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division of the Soviet Long Range Aviation at Tartu, Estonia, in 1987 gaining the rank of Major-General. From 1987 to March 1990, he commanded nuclear-armed long-range strategic bombers during his post there.
He was also commander of the garrison of Tartu. He learned Estonian and showed great tolerance for restoration of Estonian independence when in autumn 1990 he ignored the orders (as commander of the garrison of Tartu) to shut down the Estonian television and parliament. At the time, Dudayev was talking to Konstantin Borovoi, a deputy of the State Duma in Moscow. Additional aircraft were dispatched (a single Su-24MR and a single Su-25) to locate Dudayev and fire a guided missile. Exact details of this operation have not been released by the Russian government. Russian reconnaissance planes in the area had been monitoring satellite communications for some time trying to match Dudayev's voice signature to the existing samples of his speech. It was claimed Dudayev was killed by a combination of an airstrike and a booby trap. He was 52 years old.
The death of Dudayev was announced on the interrupted television broadcast by Shamil Basayev, the Chechen guerrilla commander. Dudayev was succeeded by his Vice-President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev (as acting president) and then, after the 1997 popular elections, by his wartime Chief of Staff, Aslan Maskhadov.
Dudayev was survived by his wife, Alla, and their sons.
Commemoration
There is a memorial plaque made of granite attached to the house on 8 Ülikooli street, Tartu, Estonia, in which Dudayev used to work. The house now hosts Hotel Barclay, and the former office of Dudayev has been converted into Dudayev's Room.
Places named in honor of Dudayev include:
- – There is a street in the Georgian capital Tbilisi named after Dzokhar Dudayev.
- – In 1996, a street in the Latvian capital Riga was named ' (Dzhokhar Dudaev Street). In the light of the upcoming Parliamentary elections in Latvia, several initiatives have been undertaken to lobby for the renaming or preserving the name of the street by pro-Russian and anti-Russian political parties respectively.
- – ' (Dzhokhar Dudaev Square) in the Žvėrynas district of Vilnius.
- – On 17 March 2005, a roundabout in the Polish capital Warsaw was named ' (Dzhokhar Dudayev Roundabout).
- – After Dudayev's death, various locations in Turkey were renamed after him, such as ' (Martyr Dzhokhar Dudayev Avenue) and ' (Martyr Dzhokhar Dudayev Park) in Istanbul/Ataşehir-Örnek, ' (Dzhokhar Dudayev Square) in Ankara, ' (Martyr Dzhokhar Dudaev Park) in Adapazarı, Sakarya and ' in Sivas.
- – In 1996, a street in Lviv was named ' (Dzhokhar Dudayev Street), later followed by a street in Ivano-Frankivsk and a street in Khmelnytskyi. In the war in Donbas, that started in the spring of 2014, a pro-Ukrainian volunteer battalion was named after Dudayev, led by former Chechen General Isa Munayev. In December 2022 recently liberated (from Russian forces) Izium decided to rename Turgenev Street to Dzhokhar Dudayev Street. In May 2023 Poltava renamed Nikitchenko Street in honor of Dzhokhar Dudayev.
<gallery class="center">
File:Dzokhar Dudayev monument Vilnius.jpg|Dzhokhar Dudayev Monument in Vilnius, Lithuania.
File:Džohara Dudajeva gatve.jpg|House number on Dzhokhar Dudayev avenue in Riga, Latvia.
File:Dzhokhar_Dudayev_roundabout.jpg|Dzhokhar Dudayev Roundabout in Warsaw, Poland.
File:Початок вулиці Д. Дудаєва.jpg|Dzhokhar Dudayev Street in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine.
File:Vilnius - Dudayev Square.jpg|Dzhokhar Dudayev Square in Vilnius, Lithuania.
File:Galeria czeczeńska mural.jpg|Chechen Gallery murals in Warsaw, Poland. Dzhokhar Dudayev on the left.
</gallery>
Electoral history
{| class=wikitable width=100%
! rowspan=2|Election
! rowspan=2|Affiliation
|-
!Votes
!Percentage
!Position
|-align=center
!1991 Chechen presidential election
| Vainakh Democratic Party|| 412,671 || ||1st
|-
|}
Notes
References
- 1994–1998 Encyclopædia Britannica
Sources
External links
See also
- Russism, his description of the state ideology of the Russian Federation, which he made during the First Chechen War. Since then many scholars, publicists, politicians have built upon his concept.