beliefs.
Temple Tkhabya-Yerd (temple of 2000) was initially a cuboid
cyclopean masonry structure, which was rebuilt during the spread of
Christianity in Ingushetia. The rebuilt wall was done with smaller stones shown at the entrance side. and walls were destroyed by Russian army in 19th and 20th centuries.
6000–4000 BC 20 BC 1239 AD 1300–1400 AD 1558 AD 1562 AD In Caucasian War and as part of Terek Cossacks Okrug In the 18th century the Ingush were mostly
pagan and
Christian, with a
Muslim minority. Beginning in 1588 some Chechen societies joined Russia (; ). Russian historians claim that the Ingush volunteered to become a part of Russia. This assertion is mostly based on the document signed on 13 June 1810 by General-Major Delpotso and representatives of two Ingush clans; most other clans resisted the Russian conquest. In 1811, at the Tsar's request,
Moritz von Engelhardt, a Russian envoy of German origin, visited the mountainous region of Ingushetia and tried to induce the Ingush people to join Russia by promising many benefits offered by the Tsar. The representative of the Ingush people rejected the proposal with the reply: "Above my hat I see only sky". This encounter was later used by
Goethe in his 1815 poem,
"Freisinn" ('free spirit'). On 29 June 1832, the Russian Baron Rozen reported in letter No.42 to count Chernishev that "on the 23rd of this month I exterminated eight Ghalghaj (Ingush) villages. On the 24th I exterminated nine more villages near Targim." By 12 November 1836 (letter no.560), he claimed that highlanders of Dzheirkah, Kist, and Ghalghaj had been at least temporarily subdued. In 1829
Imam Shamil began a rebellion against Russia. He conquered
Dagestan,
Chechnya, and then attacked Ingushetia hoping to convert the Ingush people to Islam, thus gaining strategic allies. However, the Ingush defeated Imam Shamil's forces. They successfully repulsed two more attempts in 1858. Nevertheless, locked in warfare with two strong opponents and their allies, Ingush forces were eventually devastated. According to the Russian officer Fedor Tornau, who fought with the aid of Ossetian allies against the Ingush, the Ingush had no more than six hundred warriors. However, the Russian conquest in Ingushetia was extremely difficult and the Russian forces began to rely more upon methods of colonization: extermination of the local population and resettlement of the area with
Cossack and
Ossetian loyalists. The colonization of Ingush land by
Russians and
Ossetians began in the mid-19th century. The Russian General Evdokimov and
Ossetian colonel Kundukhov in 'Opis no. 436' "gladly reported" that "the result of colonization of Ingush land was successful". Renamed Ingush villages and towns: • Ghazhien-Yurt was renamed
Stanitsa Assinovskaya in 1847. • Ebarg-Yurt was renamed Stanitsa Troitskaya in 1847. • Dibir-Ghala (town) was renamed Stanitsa Sleptsovskaya in 1847. • Magomet-Khite was renamed Stanitsa Voznesenskaya in 1847. • Akhi-Yurt was renamed Stanitsa Sunzhenskaya in 1859. • Ongusht was renamed Stanitsa Tarskaya in 1859. • Ildir-Ghala (town) was renamed Stanitsa Karabulakskaya in 1859. • Alkhaste was renamed Stanitsa Feldmarshalskaya in 1860. • Tauzen-Yurt was renamed Stanitsa Vorontsov-Dashkov in 1861. • Sholkhi was renamed
Khutor Tarski in 1867. Following Imam Shamil's repeated losses by the end of the Caucasian War, the Russians and Chechens unified their forces. Former Chechen rebels and their men joined the Russian ranks. On 3 November 1858, General Evdokimov ordered (order N1896) a former rebel commander,
naib Saib-Dulla Gekhinski (Saadulla Ospanov) of Chechnya to attack and destroy Ingush settlements near the Assa and Fortanga rivers: Dattikh, Meredzhi, Aseri, Shagot-Koch and others. After their defeats in combat, the remaining Ingush clans resorted mostly to underground resistance. Russian General
Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov wrote in a letter to the
Tsar of Russia, "It would be a grave mistake for Russia to alienate such a militaristic nation as the Ingush." He suggested the separation of the Ingush and Chechens in order for Russia to win the war in the Caucasus. In another letter from General Ermolov to Lanski (dated 12 January 1827) on the impossibility of forceful Christianization of the Ingush, Yermolov wrote: "This nation, the most courageous and militaristic among all the highlanders, cannot be allowed to be alienated..." The last organized rebellion (the so-called "Nazran insurrection") in Ingushetia occurred in 1858 when 5,000 Ingush launched an attack against Russian forces, but lost to the latter's superior number. The rebellion signaled the end of the First Russo-Caucasian War. In the same year, the Tsar encouraged the emigration of Ingush and Chechens to
Turkey and the
Middle East by claiming that "
Muslims need to live under Muslim rulers". His apparent motivation was to depopulate the area for the settlement of
Ossetians and
Cossacks. Some Ingush
became exiled to deserted territories in the Middle East where many of them died. The remainder were
Culturally assimilated by
Russification. It was estimated that eighty per cent of the Ingush had left Ingushetia for the Middle East by 1865. After the
Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviets promised the Ingush that the villages and towns annexed during the colonization would be returned to the Ingush. Ingushetia became a major battleground between the old archenemies: general
Denikin, and Ingush resistance fighters. In his memoirs, general
Denikin wrote
As part of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus On 21 December 1917 Ingushetia,
Chechnya, and
Dagestan declared independence from Russia and formed a single state called the "United Mountain Dwellers of the North Caucasus" (also known as
Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus), which was recognized by
Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary and Turkey), Georgia, and Azerbaijan (which declared their independence from Russia in 1918) as an independent state. For example, Anna Zelkina writes that in May 1918 the first country to recognize independence was Turkey: Later Germany and others followed the recognition. According to P. Kosok: According to the British
War Office, Germans tried to establish the military base in Ingushetia: The capital of the new state was moved to Temir-Khan-Shura (
Dagestan). The first prime minister of the state was elected
Tapa Chermoyev, a Chechen prominent statesman; the second prime minister was Ingush statesman
Vassan-Girey Dzhabagiev who also was the author of the Constitution of the land in 1917. In 1920 he was reelected for a third term. In 1921 Russians attacked and occupied the country and forcefully merged it with the Soviet state. The Caucasian war for independence continued and the government went into exile.
As part of Chechen-Ingush ASSR Cossack General
Andrei Shkuro in his book writes: The
Soviets confiscated the remaining Ingush properties by
collectivization and
dekulakization and unified
Chechnya and Ingushetia into Chechen-Ingush ASSR. During
World War II Ingush youth were drafted into the Red Army. In August 1942 Nazi German forces captured half of the North Caucasus within thirty-three days moving from Rostov-On-Don to Mozdok 560 km or almost 17 km per day (see
Battle of the Caucasus). From Mozdok to Malgobek same thirty three days, 20 km the German forces moved roughly 600 meters per day and were stopped only at Ordzhonikidze (modern-day
Vladikavkaz) and
Malgobek which were mostly populated by Ingush before the genocide of 23 February 1944. The fighting for the Malgobek was so intense that the small town was captured and recaptured four times until the Germans finally retreated. According to the Soviet military newspaper Red Star, after receiving the news about German brutality toward civilians in
Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingush people declared
Jihad(Gazavat) against Germans. Stalin planned the expansion of the USSR in the south through Turkey. Muslim Chechens and Ingush could become a threat to the expansion. In February 1944 near the end of World War II,
NKVD units flooded the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. The maneuvers were disguised as military exercises of the southern district.
Genocide of 1944 , 1942 The Northern Caucasian battle, front line in
Chechen-Ingush ASSR from Ordzhonikidze (
Vladikavkaz) to
Malgobek. During World War II, in
1942 German forces entered the North Caucasus. For three weeks, the Germans captured over half of the North Caucasus. They were only stopped at two cities in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR:
Malgobek and
Ordzhonikidze (a.k.a. 'Vladikavkaz') by the heroic resistance of the native population. On 23 February 1944, Ingush and Chechens were falsely accused of collaborating with the
Nazis, and the entire Ingush and Chechen populations were deported to
Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, and
Siberia in
Operation Lentil, on the orders of Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin, while the majority of their men were fighting on the front. The initial phase of the deportation was carried out on American-supplied
Studebaker trucks specifically modified with three submachine gun-nest compartments above the deported to prevent escapes. American historian
Norman Naimark writes: The deportees were gathered at railroad stations and during the second phase transferred to the cattle railroad carts. Up to 30% of the population perished during the journey or in the first year of the exile. The Prague Watchdog claims that "in the early years of their exile about half of the Chechens and Ingush died from hunger, cold and disease". The deportation was classified by the
European Parliament in 2004 as
genocide. After the deportation Ingush resistance against the Soviets began again. Those who escaped the deportation, including shepherds who were high in the mountains during the deportations, formed rebel groups which constantly attacked Russian forces in Ingushetia. Major rebel groups were led by
Akhmed Khuchbarov, the Tsitskiev brothers, and an Ingush female sniper,
Laisat Baisarova. The last one of the male Ingush rebels was killed in 1977 by the
KGB officers, while Baisarova was never captured or killed. American professor Johanna Nichols, who specializes in Chechen and Ingush philology, provided the theory behind the deportation:
After return from Central Asia dedicated to the anniversary of deportation, 27 February 2017 After 13 years of exile, the Ingush were allowed to return to Chechen-Ingushetia (but not to Ordzhonikidze a.k.a. "
Vladikavkaz" or the
Prigorodny District). Most of Ingushetia's territory had been settled by
Ossetians and part of the region had been transferred to
North Ossetia. The returning Ingush faced considerable animosity from the Ossetians. The Ingush were forced to buy their homes back from the Ossetians and Russians. These hardships and injustices led to a peaceful Ingush protest in
Grozny on 16 January 1973, which was crushed by Soviet troops In 1989, the Ingush were officially
rehabilitated along with other peoples that had been subjected to repressions.
Post-Soviet period In 1991, when the Chechens declared independence from the
Soviet Union to form the
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the Ingush chose to secede from the Chechen-Ingush Republic. This was confirmed with the
referendum and in 1992 the Ingush joined the newly created Russian Federation to try to resolve the conflict with Ossetia peacefully, also in the hope that the Russians would return their land as a token of their loyalty.
Ethnic cleansing of 1992 However, ethnic tensions in North Ossetia which were orchestrated by Ossetian nationalists (per Helsinki Human Right Watch), led to an outbreak of violence in the
Ossetian–Ingush conflict in October–November 1992, when another
ethnic cleansing of the Ingush population started. Over 60,000 Ingush civilians were forced from their homes in the
Prigorodny District of North Ossetia. according to Human rights watchdogs Memorial and Mashr. The number of rebel attacks in Ingushetia rose, especially after the number of Russian security forces was tripled. For example, according to a Russian news agency a murder of an
ethnic-Russian school teacher in Ingushetia was committed by two ethnic-
Russian and ethnic-Ossetian soldiers; Issa Merzhoev the Ingush Police detective who solved the crime was shot at and killed by "unknown" assailants shortly after he had identified the murderer. At least four people were injured when a vehicle exploded on 24 March 2008. An upsurge in violence in these months targeted local police officers and security forces. In January 2008, the
Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation launched a "
counter-terrorism" operation in Ingushetia after receiving information that insurgents had been preparing a series of attacks. Early in August 2008, the war between
Georgia and
South Ossetia broke out, in which the
Russian Federation subsequently became involved. After the outbreak of the war, there were virtually no more attacks or abductions of Ingush civilians by "unknown" forces. Most of the Russian forces were transferred to North and South Ossetia 31 August 2008
Magomed Yevloyev, the head of Ingush opposition and the owner of the website
ingushetiya.ru, was killed by Russian security forces Shortly before the unrecognized opposition group People's Parliament of Ingushetia Mekhk-Kkhel called for the recognition of the Russian semi-autonomous republic's independence, opposition activist Magomed Khazbiyev proclaimed, "We must ask Europe or America to separate us from Russia." at a
mosque in Ingushetia on 14 July 2018 On 18 October 2008, a Russian military convoy came under grenade attack and machine gun fire near Nazran. Official Russian reports of the ambush, which has been blamed on local Muslim separatists, said two soldiers were killed and at least seven injured. Reports from Ingush opposition sources suggested as many as forty to fifty Russian soldiers were killed. On 30 October 2008, Zyazikov was dismissed from his office (he himself claimed he resigned voluntarily). On the next day,
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was nominated by
Dmitry Medvedev and approved as president by the People's Assembly of Ingushetia (later the title
President was renamed
Head). This move was endorsed by major Russian political parties and by the Ingush opposition. Under the current rule of Yevkurov, Ingushetia seems much calmer, showing some semblance of the Russian government. Attacks on policemen have fallen by 40% and abductions by 80%.
Military history According to professor
Johanna Nichols, in all the recorded history and reconstructable
prehistory, the
Ingush people have never undertaken battle except in defense. During
World War I, 500 cavalrymen from an Ingush regiment of the
Wild Division attacked the German Iron Division. The
Russian Emperor Nicholas II, assessing the performance of the Ingush and Chechen regiments during the Brusilov breakthrough on the Russian-German front in 1915 wrote in a telegram to the Governor-General of the Tersky region Fleisher: In 1994–1996 Ingush volunteers fought alongside Chechens in the
First Chechen War. Aside from a few incidents (including the killings of Ingush civilians by Russian soldiers), Ingushetia was largely kept out of the war by a determined policy of non-violence pursued by President
Ruslan Aushev.
Moscow sent in an additional 25,000 MVD and FSB troops, tripling the number of special forces in Ingushetia.
Resistance . Lower left:
Sulumbek of Sagopshi. Right:
Akhmed Khuchbarov. • 1800s–1860s: Insurgency against Russian conquest. • 1860s–1890s: Raids of Ingush abreks on the Georgian Military Highway and Mozdok. • 1890s–1917: Insurgency of Ingush resistance under Chechen
abrek Zelimkhan Gushmazukaev and Ingush
abrek Sulumbek of Sagopshi, execution of Russian viceroy to Ingushetia colonel Mitnik by Ingush resistance fighter Buzurtanov. • 1917–1920s: Insurgency of Ingush resistance fighters against combined Russian White Guards, Cossacks, Ossetians, and general Denikin forces. • 1920s–1930s: Insurgency of Ingush people against Communists, executions of Communist leader of Ingushetia Chernoglaz by Ingush rebel Uzhakhov. Execution of Communist party leader of Ingushetia Ivanov by Ingush rebels. • 1992: Ossetian-Ingush conflict. In combat operations Ingush rebels capture armor which later transferred to Chechens or given back to Russian army after the conflict ended. • 1994: Nazran. Ingush civilians stop Russian army, flip armor, burn military trucks which were on the march to Chechnya in Russian-Chechen war. First Russian casualties reported from hands of Ingush rebels. • 1994–1996: Ingush rebels defend Grozny and participate in combat operations on Chechen side. • 1999–2006: Ingush rebels join Chechen rebels, the independence war turns into
Jihad. • 13 July 2001: Ingush people protest "defiling and desecration" of historical Christian Ingush church
Tkhaba-Yerdy after Russian troops made the church into a public toilet. Though Ingush are Muslims they highly respect their Christian past. • 15 September 2003: Ingush rebels use bomb truck and attack
FSB headquarters in Maghas. Several dozens of Russian FSB officers killed including the senior officer overseeing the FSB in Chechen republic. The several story
HQ building is severely damaged. • 6 April 2004: Ingush rebels attack Russian appointed president of Ingushetia
Murat Zyazikov. He was wounded when a car bomb was rammed into his motorcade. • 22 June 2004: Chechen and Ingush rebels
raid on Russian troops in Ingushetia. Hundreds of Russian troops killed. • 10 July 2006: In the night, Chechen politician and leader of the militants
Shamil Basayev and other four militants were killed in the village of the Ekazhevo during a truck explosion. • 31 August 2008: Execution of
Magomed Yevloyev Ingush dissident, journalist, lawyer, businessman, and the owner of the news website Ingushetiya.ru, known for being highly critical of Russian regime in Ingushetia. He was shot in the temple. Awarded posthumously, and his name is engraved in stone on the monuments at the Journalists' Memorials in
Bayeux, France and
Washington D.C., the United States. • 30 September 2008: A suicide bomber attacked the motorcade of Ruslan Meiriyev, Ingushetia's top police official. • 10 June 2009: Snipers killed
Aza Gazgireyeva, deputy chief justice of the regional Supreme Court, as she dropped her children off at school. Russian news agencies also cited investigators as saying she was likely killed for her role in investigating the 2004 attack on Ingush police forces by Chechen fighters. • 13 June 2009: Two gunmen sprayed former deputy prime minister
Bashir Aushev with automatic-weapon fire as he got out of his car at the gate outside his home in the region's main city,
Nazran. • 22 June 2009: Russian appointed president of Ingushetia
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was badly hurt when a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives as the president's convoy drove past. The attack killed three bodyguards. • 12 August 2009: Gunmen killed construction minister
Ruslan Amerkhanov in his office in the Ingush capital, Magas. • 17 August 2009: A suicide bomber killed 21 Ingush police officers and unknown numbers of
Russian Internal Ministry troops which were stationed in
Nazran, after he drove a truck full of explosives into a MVD police base. • 25 October 2009: Execution of
Maksharip Aushev, an Ingush businessman, dissident, and a vocal critic of Russian regime policies in Ingushetia. His body had over 60 bullet holes. Awarded posthumously by the
U.S. Department of State in 2009. • 2 March 2010: Another militant has been killed in the village of the Ekazhevo, his name is
Said Buryatsky, but his real one is Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Tikhomirov, although he was born in
Republic of Buryatia. • 5 April 2010: A suicide bomber injured three police officers in the town of
Karabulak. Two officers died at the hospital as a result of their injuries. While investigators arrived on scene, another car bomb was set off by remote. Nobody was hurt in the second blast. • 24 January 2011: A suicide bomber, Magomed Yevloyev (same first and last name as the slain Ingush opposition journalist
Magomed Yevloyev), killed 37 people at Domodedovo airport, Moscow, Russia. • 2012: Ingush rebels participate in the
war against
Bashar al-Assad,
Iranian, and
Russian advisors in
Syria, which is largely viewed by Ingush rebels as a war against Russia and the
Iranian-speaking Ossetians. The rebel Ingush commanders are veterans of Ossetian-Ingush conflict, wars in Chechnya, Daud Khalukhayev from the Ingush village of Palanazh (Katsa), and a descendant of Ingush deportee of 1860s Syrian-born Walid Didigov. • 6 June 2013: Accusation of former Ingush rebel leader Ali "
Maghas"
Taziev in Rostov-On-Don regional Russian court, who was captured after he voluntarily gave himself in on 9 June 2010 to Russian forces in Ingushetia on the agreement that Russians will liberate his relatives held hostage in one of the Russian military bases. • 27 August 2013: Execution of the head of security of Ingushetia Akhmet Kotiev and his bodyguard by
Ingush rebels. Kotiev was actively involved in the assassination of
Magomed Yevloyev. • 10 December 2013: Ingush opposition leader
Magomed Khazbiev, who was a close friend of assassinated Magomed Yevloyev, attends
Euromaidan in
Ukraine and participates in anti-Russian campaign there, after which his parents were threatened and harassed in Russia. On his website he wrote: "the fact that Putin's slaves harass my parents does not make any sense [is in vain], if you [Russians] want me to stop you have to kill me like Magomed Yevloyev and Makhsharip Aushev". • 2 February 2014: Russian
FSB officially claimed that in December 2013 four North Caucasian instructors operated in Ukraine, and prepared Ukrainians for "street battles against Russian interests". • 20 April 2014: Famous Ingush human rights defender
Ibragim Lyanov stated that Ingushetia wants to separate from Russia and become an independent state, using the example of the
Crimean separation from Ukraine. • 24 May 2014: Ingush rebel leader
Arthur Getagazhev, four rebels, and two civilians were killed in action in the village of
Sagopshi by Russian forces. • 2 July 2014: After several months of denial, pro-Russian president of Ingushetia finally recognizes that there are Ingush people
fighting in
Ukraine on "both sides". • 2 July 2014: Ingush rebels attack Russian armored military convoy killing one and wounding seven soldiers. • 6 July 2014: Russian special forces prepared an ambush near the morgue in
Nazran hospital where the body of
Arthur Getagazhev was located. The intelligence reported that Ingush rebels will try to recover the body of the slain leader. The intelligence was correct.
Radio Free Europe (section specializing in the Caucasus), reports that in the middle of the day two Ingush rebels attacked the ambush, according to unofficial source two rebels killed seven and wounded four Russian
FSB and
spetsnaz officers in less than forty seconds, after which the rebels left the scene unharmed. The source in Ingush police who wanted to stay anonymous said that exact number of killed are known only by the FSB but nobody would dare to declare it officially. According to pro-Kremlin
LifeNews, released video of the attack lasted less than 19 seconds. • 17 January 2015: Maghas. Rise of anti-Western sentiments. Over 20,000 Ingush citizens protest against Europe. • 28 February 2015: Russian opposition leader Nemtsov's death linked to Ingushetia by Russian police. • 26 March 2019: Thousands of people in Ingushetia have protested against a controversial border deal with neighboring Chechnya, denouncing land swaps under the agreement and calling for Ingushetia head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov to step down. • 25 June 2019: Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, has announced his resignation after almost 11 years in the position. De facto Ingushetia has no active leader. Civil protests continue, Ingush people boycotting the Russian appointed elections. • 2 March 2024: Clashes between militants and the Russian police began in Ingushetia. ==Politics==