Aslan Maskhadov: biography, history and interesting facts

Maskhadov Aslan Alievich - one of the most ambiguous personalities of modern history. Some people consider him a hero of the Chechen people, others - a terrorist. Who was Aslan Maskhadov really? The biography of this historical figure will become the subject of our study.

Childhood and youth

Maskhadov Aslan Alievich was born in the autumn of 1951 in a small village in the territory of the Kazakh SSR, where his parents were deported at the time. His family came from the Tapa Alleria.

In 1957, with the beginning of the thaw, the deported Chechens were rehabilitated. This allowed Aslan, together with his parents, to return to the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. There they lived in one of the villages of the Nadterchensky district.

In 1966, Aslan Maskhadov joined the ranks of the Komsomol, and two years later completed his secondary school in his village. In 1972 he graduated from the military school in Tbilisi, which specialized in the production of artillery personnel. After that, for five years he served in the army in the Far East, where he rose to the post of lock-divisional. At the same time he was accepted into the ranks of the CPSU.

In 1981, having shown excellent results in studies, he graduated from the Military Artillery Academy, located in Leningrad.

After graduation, he was sent to Hungary, where he served as commander of an artillery regiment.

On the scrapping of the ages

In 1986, as commander of the regiment and in the rank of colonel Aslan Maskhadov was sent to Lithuania. During the time of his command, she was more than once recognized as the best in the Baltics. He himself was appointed chief of staff of the missile forces.

At that time, processes were underway in the country, which in the near future led to the disintegration of the USSR and the change of the social system. Before other republics, centrifugal tendencies began to appear in the Baltic States. However, before active protests began and the use of armed forces against them, Maskhadov was recalled, although his part took part in the actions against the insurgents.

In 1992, he resigned from the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces. Some experts believe that this decision was primarily dictated by its disagreements with the higher military authorities, others - exacerbation on the Chechen-Ingush border.

The first Chechen

After the resignation Aslan Maskhadov went to the capital of Chechnya - Grozny. There at that time Jokhar Dudayev, who had proclaimed independent Ichkeria (CRI), had already taken power. Immediately upon arrival, Maskhadov was appointed to them by the head of the Civil Defense, and then by the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces.

Since 1994, the so-called First Chechen War began. Aslan Maskhadov successfully led the defense of Grozny, for which he received the rank of divisional general from Dudayev. After his leadership, a number of successful operations were carried out, in particular, the seizure of Grozny after the occupation of the city by Russian troops.

In Russia, Maskhadov was prosecuted as the creator of an illegal armed group, which, however, did not prevent him from negotiating with the Russian authorities.

In 1996, during a special operation, Dzhokhar Dudayev was killed, but this did not prevent the successful actions of Chechen fighters against the Russian army.

In 1996, agreements were reached between the government of the Russian Federation and representatives of the self-proclaimed Ichkeria. The signing of peace agreements took place in the Dagestan city of Khasavyurt. From the CRI the contract was signed by Maskhadov Aslan Alievich. The history of the Chechen conflict, it would seem, was over. These agreements presupposed the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Chechnya, an agreement on the election of a new president of Ichkeria, and a postponement of the issue of deciding the fate of the CRI status until 2001. Thus ended the First Chechen War.

Presidential post

After the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements before the presidential elections and. about. President of CRI was Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Aslan Maskhadov became simultaneously prime minister and minister of defense.

In January 1997, presidential elections took place, in which the victory was won by Aslan Maskhadov, ahead of Shamil Basayev and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.

Initially, Maskhadov tried to build an independent Chechen state on the democratic principles of civil society. But his positions were too weak. On the contrary, Islamic extremists, field commanders and leaders of various gangs began to gain more and more power in Chechnya.

Maskhadov by and large was not a politician, but a military man. He had to maneuver between these groups, to make concessions to them. This led to further radicalization, Islamization and criminalization of Chechen society. In the CRI were introduced sharia law, the republic was flooded with foreign extremists, field commanders began to show greater disobedience to the government of Ichkeria.

The second Chechen

The result of this situation was that in 1999, field commanders Shamil Basayev and Khattab arbitrarily, without the sanctions of the president and government of CRI, invaded the territory of Dagestan. Thus began the Second Chechen War.

Although Maskhadov publicly condemned the actions of Basayev, Khattab and other field commanders, they could not really control them. Therefore, the Russian leadership, after having knocked out militants from the territory of Dagestan, decided to conduct an operation to completely destroy them on the territory of Chechnya.

The entry of Russian troops into the territory of the CRI led to a direct confrontation between Maskhadov and the Russian government. He began to lead the resistance. The President of Ichkeria was first declared an All-Russian and then an international wanted man. Initially, Maskhadov could directly direct only a relatively small detachment, since most field commanders in fact did not obey him, and only in 2002 a general command was formed. Thus, Basayev, Khattab and other leaders of the militants joined Maskhadov.

The actions of Russian troops in Chechnya this time were much more successful than in the first campaign. By the end of 2000, the Russian army controlled much of Chechnya. The militants were hiding in mountainous areas, organizing terrorist acts and sabotage.

The death of Maskhadov

To finally destroy the terrorist center in Chechnya, the Russian special services decided to conduct a number of operations to personally liquidate the leaders of the militants.

In March 2005, a special operation was carried out to detain the former leader of Ichkeria. Aslan Maskhadov was killed in the course of it. According to one version, he was shot by a bodyguard, since Maskhadov did not want to give up alive.

A family

Maskhadov had a wife, a son and a daughter. Aslan Maskhadov's wife, Kusam Semiev, was a telephone operator before her marriage in 1972. After the death of her husband, she stayed abroad for a long time, until in 2016 she received permission to return to Chechnya.

The son of Aslan Maskhadov - Anzor - was born in 1979. Educated in Malaysia. He currently resides in Finland and is critical of the Russian authorities, in particular Ramzan Kadyrov.

The daughter of Maskhadov - Fatima - was born in 1981. Like his brother, he currently lives in Finland.

general characteristics

It is rather difficult to give an impartial description of such an ambiguous figure as Aslan Maskhadov. Some people too idealize it, others demonize it. It should be noted that most people personally familiar with him characterize Maskhadov as an excellent officer, a man of honor. At the same time, he showed inability to govern the state and could not subordinate the central government to a lot of different groups in Ichkeria, on which he often had to go.

Currently, actions and pickets are held in memory of Aslan Maskhadov demanding that the Russian authorities extradite his body to his relatives. But so far they have not led to the results.

Interesting Facts

While studying at the academy in Leningrad, Aslan Maskhadov asked him to call him Oleg, and in documents he was listed as Oslan. In addition, classmates noted the complete lack of religiousness in Maskhadov, as well as the fact that he was not averse to skipping a glass, although it strictly prohibited Islam.

According to his colleagues, Maskhadov spoke sharply about the proclamation of Lithuania's independence, considering it separatism.

According to some information sources, Russian special services were able to calculate the location of Maskhadov by IMEI of a mobile phone.