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126-661: The East Prigorodny conflict , also referred to as the Ossetian–Ingush conflict , was an inter-ethnic conflict within the Russian Federation , in the eastern part of the Prigorodny District in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania , which started in 1989 and developed, in 1992, into a brief ethnic war between local Ingush and Ossetian paramilitary forces. The oldest Ingush settlements founded in

252-585: A communist-led revolution in Afghanistan, Soviet forces invaded the country, ultimately starting the Soviet–Afghan War . In May 1988, the Soviets started to withdraw from Afghanistan , due to international opposition, persistent anti-Soviet guerrilla warfare, and a lack of support by Soviet citizens. From 1985 onwards, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev , who sought to enact liberal reforms in

378-653: A troika was designated to take charge. Eventually Joseph Stalin , the General Secretary of the Communist Party , managed to suppress all opposition factions and consolidate power in his hands to become the country's dictator by the 1930s. Leon Trotsky , the main proponent of world revolution , was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, and Stalin's idea of Socialism in One Country became

504-611: A Varangian from the Rus' people , named Rurik , was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev , which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars . Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate, and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia . In

630-470: A cemetery in Nazran. In 2012, a "memorial to the victims of the fall of 1992" was opened there. The republican authorities completely took the position of "national interests of Ossetians" and preferred blood solidarity with citizens of another state to protecting the interests and security of the republic's residents, who were an ethnic minority. The federal authorities failed to provide timely assistance in

756-456: A chance. That is why the issue of transferring part of Vladikavkaz to house the capital administration of the newly formed republic became one of the most important demands of the radical wing of the Ingush national movement. The second important factor in the modern history of the Ingush, which had a huge impact on the mentality and behavior of this group, was the 1944 deportation. By the decree of

882-510: A crisis. By 1991, economic and political turmoil began to boil over as the Baltic states chose to secede from the Soviet Union. On 17 March, a referendum was held, in which the vast majority of participating citizens voted in favour of changing the Soviet Union into a renewed federation . In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin became the first directly elected President in Russian history when he

1008-664: A global superpower. After World War II, according to the Potsdam Conference , the Red Army occupied parts of Eastern and Central Europe, including East Germany and the eastern regions of Austria . Dependent communist governments were installed in the Eastern Bloc satellite states. After becoming the world's second nuclear power , the Soviet Union established the Warsaw Pact alliance, and entered into

1134-800: A large confederacy, which was subsequently taken over by the Cumans and the Kipchaks . The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes that separated from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who appeared in the northeastern part of Europe c.  1500  years ago. The East Slavs gradually settled western Russia (approximately between modern Moscow and Saint-Petersburg ) in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov . Prior to Slavic migration, that territory

1260-520: A line of Cossack stanitsas was created, dividing plain and mountainous Ingushetia. The Ingush, however, did not accept this state of affairs. Confrontation with the Cossacks continued constantly, even though the tsarist authorities supported the Cossacks. After the end of the civil war, the Ingush demanded that the Soviet authorities fulfill their promise to return the lands settled by the Cossacks to

1386-700: A recognised group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. The first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus' , arose in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire . Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated; the Grand Duchy of Moscow led the unification of Russian lands, leading to the proclamation of the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. By the early 18th century, Russia had vastly expanded through conquest, annexation, and

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1512-633: A secret protocol within the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany . The Soviet Union later invaded Finland , and occupied and annexed the Baltic states , as well as parts of Romania . On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union , opening the Eastern Front , the largest theater of World War II. Eventually, some 5 million Red Army troops were captured by the Nazis;

1638-517: A struggle for global dominance, known as the Cold War , with the rivalling United States and NATO . After Stalin's death in 1953 and a short period of collective rule , the new leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin and launched the policy of de-Stalinization , releasing many political prisoners from the Gulag labour camps. The general easement of repressive policies became known later as

1764-651: Is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ; a member state of the G20 , SCO , BRICS , APEC , OSCE , and WTO ; and the leading member state of post-Soviet organisations such as CIS , CSTO , and EAEU/EEU . It possesses the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons and has the third-highest military expenditure . Russia is generally considered a great power and is a regional power . Internationally, Russia ranks very low in measurements of democracy , human rights and freedom of

1890-455: Is an administrative and municipal district ( raion ), one of the eight in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania , Russia . It is located in the east of the republic. The area of the district is 1,460 square kilometers (560 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality (a selo ) of Oktyabrskoye . One of the oldest centers of settlement of the Ingush on the plane

2016-479: Is estimated that between 1994 and 2008, around 25,000 of the Ingush people returned to Prigorodny District while some 7,500 remained in Ingushetia. Since the conflict, the parties have repeatedly signed agreements on overcoming its consequences. The last one was signed after Murat Zyazikov was elected president of Ingushetia in 2002. The document again did not resolve the territorial issue, but only suggested that

2142-731: Is the Tarskoye Valley, the name of which derives from the villagers of Tärsh in the Armkhi Gorge . According to Georgian geographer Vakhushti Bagrationi , the village Angusht had already existed in the 17th century in the Tarskoye Valley. The exonym “Ingush” originated from this village. As a result of the policy of the government of the Russian Empire in the North Caucasus, aimed at deporting

2268-477: Is the largest country in the world by area , extending across eleven time zones and sharing land borders with fourteen countries . It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country . Russia is a highly urbanised country including 16 population centres with over a million inhabitants. Its capital and largest city is Moscow . Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city and its cultural capital . The East Slavs emerged as

2394-628: The Oxford English Dictionary , the English name Russia first appeared in the 14th century, borrowed from Medieval Latin : Russia , used in the 11th century and frequently in 12th-century British sources, in turn derived from Russi , 'the Russians'; and the suffix -ia . In modern historiography, this state is usually denoted as Kievan Rus' after its capital city. Another Medieval Latin name for Rus'

2520-554: The Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. Another German failure was the Siege of Leningrad , in which the city was fully blockaded on land between 1941 and 1944 by German and Finnish forces, and suffered starvation and more than a million deaths, but never surrendered. Soviet forces steamrolled through Eastern and Central Europe in 1944–1945 and captured Berlin in May 1945. In August 1945,

2646-765: The Brusilov Offensive of the Imperial Russian Army almost completely destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Army . However, the already-existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of war, high casualties , and rumors of corruption and treason. All this formed the climate for the Russian Revolution of 1917, carried out in two major acts. In early 1917, Nicholas II was forced to abdicate ; he and his family were imprisoned and later executed during

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2772-475: The Congress of Vienna , which defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe. The officers who pursued Napoleon into Western Europe brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia, and attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825. At the end of the conservative reign of Nicholas I (1825–1855), a zenith period of Russia's power and influence in Europe, was disrupted by defeat in

2898-693: The Crimean War . Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–1881) enacted significant changes throughout the country, including the emancipation reform of 1861 . These reforms spurred industrialisation, and modernised the Imperial Russian Army, which liberated much of the Balkans from Ottoman rule in the aftermath of the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War . During most of the 19th and early 20th century, Russia and Britain colluded over Afghanistan and its neighbouring territories in Central and South Asia;

3024-614: The Great Northern War (1700–1721), securing Russia's access to the sea and sea trade. In 1703, on the Baltic Sea, Peter founded Saint Petersburg as Russia's new capital. Throughout his rule, sweeping reforms were made , which brought significant Western European cultural influences to Russia. He was succeeded by Catherine I (1725–1727), followed by Peter II (1727–1730), and Anna . The reign of Peter I's daughter Elizabeth in 1741–1762 saw Russia's participation in

3150-701: The Khrushchev Thaw . At the same time, Cold War tensions reached its peak when the two rivals clashed over the deployment of the United States Jupiter missiles in Turkey and Soviet missiles in Cuba . In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite , Sputnik 1 , thus starting the Space Age . Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit

3276-707: The Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic . About 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in southern Russia. Flint tools, some 1.5 million years old, have been discovered in the North Caucasus . Radiocarbon dated specimens from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains estimate the oldest Denisovan specimen lived 195–122,700 years ago. Fossils of Denny , an archaic human hybrid that

3402-414: The Prigorodny District of North Ossetia. Although Russian troops often intervened to prevent some acts of violence by Ossetian police and republican guards, the stance of the Russian peacekeeping forces was strongly pro-Ossetian, not only objectively as a result of its deployment, but subjectively as well. The fighting, which lasted six days, had at its root a dispute between ethnic Ingush and Ossetians over

3528-643: The Prigorodny district (Tarskaya valley) in the 17th century are Angusht (now the village of Tarskoye), from whose name the ethnonym "Ingush" is derived, and Akhki-Yurt . With the arrival of Russia in the Caucasus, a number of territories inhabited by the Ingush were transferred to the Terek Cossacks. The lands that had previously belonged to the Ingush were given to the Terek Cossacks and

3654-568: The Rurik dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, the Novgorod Republic in the north, and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west. By the 12th century, Kiev lost its pre-eminence and Kievan Rus' had fragmented into different principalities. Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky sacked Kiev in 1169 and made Vladimir his base, leading to political power being shifted to

3780-843: The Russian Civil War . The monarchy was replaced by a shaky coalition of political parties that declared itself the Provisional Government , and proclaimed the Russian Republic . On 19 January [ O.S. 6 January], 1918, the Russian Constituent Assembly declared Russia a democratic federal republic (thus ratifying the Provisional Government's decision). The next day the Constituent Assembly

3906-632: The Seven Years' War (1756–1763). During the conflict, Russian troops overran East Prussia , reaching Berlin. However, upon Elizabeth's death, all these conquests were returned to the Kingdom of Prussia by pro-Prussian Peter III of Russia . Catherine II ("the Great"), who ruled in 1762–1796, presided over the Russian Age of Enlightenment . She extended Russian political control over

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4032-852: The Siberian River Routes , and by the mid-17th century, there were Russian settlements in eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula , along the Amur River , and on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. In 1648, Semyon Dezhnyov became the first European to navigate through the Bering Strait . Under Peter the Great , Russia was proclaimed an empire in 1721, and established itself as one of the European great powers. Ruling from 1682 to 1725, Peter defeated Sweden in

4158-653: The Soviet Union , by joining the Russian SFSR into a single state with the Byelorussian , Transcaucasian , and Ukrainian republics. Eventually internal border changes and annexations during World War II created a union of 15 republics ; the largest in size and population being the Russian SFSR, which dominated the union politically, culturally, and economically. Following Lenin's death in 1924,

4284-622: The Soviet period some Ingush managed to unofficially purchase and occupy their own houses back but they were never recognized as official residents. The deterioration of relations happened back in 1981. The reason for the deterioration of relations was another murder of an Ossetian taxi driver, 28-year-old resident of Kambileevsky Kazbek Gagloev. He was killed in the Ingush village of Plievo. His funeral actually became an anti-Ingush rally, which caused rallies in Ordzhonikidze in 1981. During

4410-443: The collapse of the Soviet Union , when the Ingush openly declared their rights to the Prigorodny District according to the Soviet law adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 26 April 1991; in particular, the third and the sixth article on "territorial rehabilitation". The law gave the Ingush legal grounds for their demands, which caused serious turbulence in the region. As the tensions grew throughout 1991, Ossetian thugs harassed

4536-494: The 10th to 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium , and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code , the Russkaya Pravda . The age of feudalism and decentralisation had come, marked by constant in-fighting between members of

4662-448: The 16th century, Russia expanded east of the Ural Mountains . However, the Tsardom was weakened by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (later the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ), the Kingdom of Sweden , and Denmark–Norway for access to the Baltic coast and sea trade. In 1572, an invading army of Crimean Tatars were thoroughly defeated in

4788-488: The 20th century saw some of the most significant Russian technological achievements , including the first human-made satellite and the first human expedition into outer space . In 1991, the Russian SFSR emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as the Russian Federation. A new constitution was adopted, which established a federal semi-presidential system . Since the turn of the century, Russia's political system has been dominated by Vladimir Putin , under whom

4914-428: The Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russia's, coat-of-arms. Vasili III united all of Russia by annexing the last few independent Russian states in the early 16th century. In development of the Third Rome ideas, the grand duke Ivan IV ("the Terrible") was officially crowned the first tsar of Russia in 1547. The tsar promulgated a new code of laws ( Sudebnik of 1550 ), established

5040-421: The Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR, but was the administrative center of both oblasts. In October 1928, the leadership of the North Caucasus Krai failed to transfer the city of Vladikavkaz into North Ossetian ASSR because of strong objections from the Ingush Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks led by Idris Zyazikov  [ ru ] . The transfer would have brought

5166-515: The Chechens and Ingush and the abolishment of their ASSR, the district was transferred to North Ossetian ASSR . Soon, on 8 May 1944, the North Ossetian Regional Committee , headed by Kubadi Kulov  [ ru ] , replaced the toponymy in the former Chechen and Ingush raions of Chechen-Ingush ASSR. At the same time, the destruction of Chechen and Ingush cemeteries began, the tombstones from which were used for building material, and 25-35 thousand Ossetians from Georgian SSR were resettled to

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5292-428: The Cossack stanitsa Tarskaya was built on the site of the village Angusht. The same happened on other Ingush lands: on the site of the village Akhki-Yurt appeared the Sunzhenskaya stanitsa ; on the site of the village Tauzen-Yurt — the Vorontsovsko-Dashkovskaya stanitsa ; on the site of the village Akh-Borze — the Assinovskaya stanitsa , on the site of the village Mahmad-Khithe — the Voznesenskaya stanitsa ; on

5418-425: The Cossack settlers and Ingush, the civil war of the early 20th century, in which the majority of the Ingush took up arms against the White Army during the Russian Revolution , became the main reason that the Cossack population from the above villages had to be deported, after which many of the occupied villages and lands were returned to the Ingush. Until 1944, the eastern part of the modern Prigorodny District of

5544-406: The Earth, aboard the Vostok 1 crewed spacecraft on 12 April 1961 . Following the ousting of Khrushchev in 1964, another period of collective rule ensued, until Leonid Brezhnev became the leader. The era of the 1970s and the early 1980s was later designated as the Era of Stagnation . The 1965 Kosygin reform aimed for partial decentralisation of the Soviet economy . In 1979, after

5670-422: The Ingush and a slow exodus of refugees began into Ingushetia. On 20 October 1992, an Ingush girl was crushed by an Ossetian armored personnel carrier and two days later Ossetian traffic police officers shot and killed two Ingush. After the series of murders of Ingush citizens in the district, Ingush deputies requested on 23–24 October the Supreme Soviet of Russia and its government to send a special commission to

5796-449: The Ingush as denying their claim to the Prigorodnyi region provoked almost a week of demonstrations that reportedly drew 10,000 people. Consequently, the USSR Supreme Soviet created the "Belyakov Commission" to investigate Ingush demands. The commission concluded that Ingush claims to the Prigorodnyi region were not unfounded. Moscow approached the problem insufficiently decisively: the federal center practically withdrew itself, did not stop

5922-402: The Ingush did not find their capital in Grozny either, which gave rise to a powerful complex of disadvantaged people, especially among the intelligentsia and economic elite of Ingush origin. During the period of industrialization no new city emerged on the territory of Ingushetia that could take on the role of a national center, and the subsequent tragic history of the Ingush did not give them such

6048-408: The Ingush forced them to organize the Rally in Grozny on 16–19 January 1973  [ ru ] where they demanded that the Soviet authorities solve the problem of the Prigorodny District, provide the Ingush with social equality with the Ossetians. Despite the rally being peaceful, held under the slogans of " friendship of peoples ", "restoration of Leninist norms" with the order being maintained by

6174-430: The Ingush in North Ossetia, not only in the Prigorodny district but also at the level of the republican center, was poor. The North Ossetian leadership, including members of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, was dominated by the view that no preferences for the Ingush minority in the cultural and linguistic sphere were possible if even the Ossetians themselves did not have them. The Committee on Interethnic Relations under

6300-433: The Ingush irreparable losses as the main industrial enterprises, a hospital, technical schools, educational institutions and many cultural institutions of Ingush Autonomous Oblast were located in Vladikavkaz. On 1 July 1933, after the removal of Zyazikov from the political scene and reprisals against other most stubborn opponents and the Ingush Regional Committee being forced to withdraw its previous objections under pressure,

6426-452: The Ingush themselves, they received no response from the authorities and the rally ended in clashes with the police and the condemnation of its most active participants. According to Idris Bazorkin , after the protest, conditions of Ingush in the Prigorodny District improved somewhat. Ingush language appeared in schools, literature in the Ingush language arrived in the region, broadcasts in the Ingush language began on radio and television, for

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6552-506: The Ingush. In connection with the latter, during the formation of the Gorskaya ASSR, a considerable amount of land was returned to the Ingush, while the Terek Cossacks were evicted. Until 1924 the territory of North Ossetia and Ingushetia was part of the Gorskaya ASSR. On July 7, 1924 the Gorskaya ASSR was abolished and divided into the North Ossetian and Ingush Autonomous Regions and the Sunzhensky District. The city of Vladikavkaz became an independent administrative unit directly subordinated to

6678-442: The Kommersant newspaper who visited North Ossetia wrote about what they saw: The result of the "separation" was the completely extinct and scorched Prigorodny district, from which the entire 30,000-strong Ingush population was deported. Not far from the village of Alkun, on the mountain trails in Ingushetia, we saw the flow of Ingush refugees from North Ossetia, which has not stopped since November 2. People walked for days and nights in

6804-484: The Nijskho public movement was formed, which advocated the restoration of Ingush autonomy and the transfer of Prigorodny district under its jurisdiction. A September 1989 conference of Ingush intellectuals and nationalists decided to reestablish an Ingush territorial unit within the RSFSR which had existed until 1934 when Ingushetiya was merged with Chechnya. In 1989 and 1990 60,000 signatures were gathered supporting that demand. In March 1990, an article in Pravda perceived by

6930-414: The Ossetian-Ingush border zone in order to prevent the impending conflict, but no action was taken. On 24 October the leaders of the Prigorodny District gathered in the village of Yuzhny where they called on all local village councils to declare secession from North Ossetia and entry into Ingushetia in accordance with the law of Russia . In addition, an attempt was made to create Ingush self-defense units. At

7056-485: The Ossetians in the district and on the outskirts of the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz , Ingush from elsewhere in North Ossetia were forcibly evicted and expelled from their homes. Russian OMON forces actively participated in the fighting and sometimes led Ossetian fighters into battle. On October 31, 1992, armed clashes broke out between Ingush militias and North Ossetian security forces and paramilitaries supported by Russian Interior Ministry (MVD) and Army troops in

7182-415: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and annexed most of its territories into Russia , making it the most populous country in Europe. In the south, after the successful Russo-Turkish Wars against the Ottoman Empire , Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to the Black Sea, by dissolving the Crimean Khanate , and annexing Crimea . As a result of victories over Qajar Iran through the Russo-Persian Wars , by

7308-407: The Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution on the restoration of the national autonomy of the Chechen and Ingush peoples, but the Prigorodny district remained part of North Ossetia. Unlike the rest of the republic where Ossetians account for the majority of the population, the district has a significant Ingush population. The district in its eastern part is still considered

7434-412: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 7, 1944, the Chechen-Ingush Republic was liquidated, and all Chechens and Ingush were deported, mainly to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The Prigorodny District was part of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR . Prior to the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush , the population was mostly made up of Ingush (28132 out of 33753). In 1944, with the deportation of

7560-515: The Prigorodny District. Between 1944 and 1957, the Prigorodny district was inhabited by Ossetians. The resettlement of Ossetians to the former Ingush lands was also carried out by the authorities against their will and desire. In 1957, when the Ingush were returning from the deportation and their ASSR was restored , they were denied the return to Prigorodny District which remained part of the North Ossetian ASSR. Those who tried to return to their villages faced considerable hostility. Nevertheless, during

7686-437: The Prigorodnyi region, a sliver of land of about 978 square kilometers over which both sides lay claim. That dispute has not been resolved, nor has the conflict. Both sides have committed human rights violations. Thousands of homes have been wantonly destroyed, most of them Ingush. More than one thousand hostages were taken on both sides, and as of 1996 approximately 260 individuals-mostly Ingush-remain unaccounted for, according to

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7812-484: The Procuracy of the Russian Federation. Nearly five hundred individuals were killed in the first six days of conflict. Hostage-taking, shootings, and attacks on life and property continued at least until 1996. President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree that the Prigorodny district was to remain part of North Ossetia on November 2. Total dead as of June 30, 1994: 644. Thirteen of the 15 villages in Prigorodny district, where Ingush lived compactly, were destroyed. Up to 90% of

7938-692: The Provisional Government and gave full governing power to the soviets, leading to the creation of the world's first socialist state . The Russian Civil War broke out between the anti-communist White movement and the Bolsheviks with its Red Army . In the aftermath of signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that concluded hostilities with the Central Powers of World War I ; Bolshevist Russia surrendered most of its western territories, which hosted 34% of its population, 54% of its industries, 32% of its agricultural land, and roughly 90% of its coal mines. The Allied powers launched an unsuccessful military intervention in support of anti-communist forces. In

8064-406: The Red Army invaded Manchuria and ousted the Japanese from Northeast Asia, contributing to the Allied victory over Japan. The 1941–1945 period of World War II is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War . The Soviet Union, along with the United States, the United Kingdom and China were considered the Big Four of Allied powers in World War II, and later became the Four Policemen , which

8190-411: The Russian authorities on this issue. The Security Council of the Russian Federation prepared only a draft political assessment of the events of October-November 1992. As a result of the conflict, the Ingush population of Vladikavkaz and Prigorodny district (with the exception of some residents of Karts, Mayskoye and Ezmi) fled almost entirely from North Ossetia to Ingushetia. Special correspondents of

8316-403: The Russian autocratic state. The destruction of Kievan Rus' saw the eventual rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow , initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal . While still under the domain of the Mongol - Tatars and with their connivance, Moscow began to assert its influence in the region in the early 14th century, gradually becoming the leading force in the "gathering of the Russian lands". When

8442-415: The Russian leadership undertaken any serious effort to promote reconciliation. As a result deep-rooted stereotyped perceptions of "the adversary," often based on a distorted or mythologized perception of past events, continue to poison relations between the two ethnic groups. Russian Federation Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia . It

8568-476: The Russian parliament culminated in a constitutional crisis which ended violently through military force. During the crisis, Yeltsin was backed by Western governments, and over 100 people were killed. In December, a referendum was held and approved, which introduced a new constitution, giving the president enormous powers. The 1990s were plagued by armed conflicts in the North Caucasus , both local ethnic skirmishes and separatist Islamist insurrections. From

8694-408: The Soviet Union led Russia into a deep and prolonged depression. During and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, wide-ranging reforms including privatisation and market and trade liberalisation were undertaken, including radical changes along the lines of " shock therapy ". The privatisation largely shifted control of enterprises from state agencies to individuals with inside connections in

8820-523: The Soviet Union. The transitional disorganisation of the country's agriculture, combined with the harsh state policies and a drought, led to the Soviet famine of 1932–1933 ; which killed 5.7 to 8.7 million, 3.3 million of them in the Russian SFSR. The Soviet Union, ultimately, made the costly transformation from a largely agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse within a short span of time. The Soviet Union entered World War II on 17 September 1939 with its invasion of Poland , in accordance with

8946-435: The Soviet period, programs in support of Ingush language and culture in North Ossetian ASSR were totally lacking. The policies of the ASSR limited Ingush residency in the district and hindered their access to plots of land. The internal police and local courts where Ossetians dominated treated the Ingush with prejudice, especially during the state of emergency imposed in Prigorodny in April 1992. The constant discrimination of

9072-406: The Soviet system, introduced the policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in an attempt to end the period of economic stagnation and to democratise the government . This, however, led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements across the country. Prior to 1991, the Soviet economy was the world's second-largest, but during its final years, it went into

9198-604: The Ukrainian leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky , offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian tsar, Alexis ; whose acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War . Ultimately, Ukraine was split along the Dnieper , leaving the eastern part, ( Left-bank Ukraine and Kiev ) under Russian rule. In the east, the rapid Russian exploration and colonisation of vast Siberia continued, hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along

9324-823: The Volga-Dnieper region of southern Russia and Ukraine as the urheimat of the Proto-Indo-Europeans . Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Ukraine and Russia spread Yamnaya ancestry and Indo-European languages across large parts of Eurasia. Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic–Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic . Remnants of these steppe civilizations were discovered in places such as Ipatovo , Sintashta , Arkaim , and Pazyryk , which bear

9450-477: The arming of both sides and could not contain the growing tension. And by legislative acts it only fueled the conflict. Ethnic violence rose steadily in the area of the Prigorodny district , to the east of the Terek River , despite the introduction of 1,500 Soviet Internal Troops to the area. During the summer and early autumn of 1992, there was a steady increase in the militancy of Ingush nationalists. At

9576-591: The capital Moscow. In 1612, the Poles were forced to retreat by the Russian volunteer corps, led by merchant Kuzma Minin and prince Dmitry Pozharsky . The Romanov dynasty acceded to the throne in 1613 by the decision of the Zemsky Sobor, and the country started its gradual recovery from the crisis. Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which was the age of the Cossacks . In 1654,

9702-545: The control of the Golden Horde and consolidated the whole of northern Rus' under Moscow's dominion, and was the first Russian ruler to take the title "Grand Duke of all Rus'". After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire . Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina , the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI , and made

9828-476: The country has experienced democratic backsliding and become an authoritarian dictatorship . Russia has been militarily involved in a number of conflicts in former Soviet states and other countries , including its war with Georgia in 2008 and its war with Ukraine since 2014, which has involved the internationally unrecognised annexations of Ukrainian territory including Crimea in 2014 and four other regions in 2022 during an ongoing invasion . Russia

9954-839: The country was more often referred to by its inhabitants as Rus ' , the Russian land ( Russkaia zemlia ), or the Muscovite state ( Moskovskoe gosudarstvo ), among other variations. In 1721, Peter the Great changed the name of the state from Tsardom of Russia ( Russian : Русское царство , romanized :  Russkoye tsarstvo ) or Tsardom of Muscovy ( Russian : Московское царство , romanized :  Moskovskoye tsarstvo ) to Russian Empire ( Rossiiskaia imperiia ). There are several words in Russian which translate to "Russians" in English. The noun and adjective русский , russkiy refers to ethnic Russians . The adjective российский , rossiiskiy denotes Russian citizens regardless of ethnicity. The same applies to

10080-450: The crucial Battle of Molodi . The death of Ivan's sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik dynasty in 1598, and in combination with the disastrous famine of 1601–1603 , led to a civil war, the rule of pretenders, and foreign intervention during the Time of Troubles in the early 17th century. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , taking advantage, occupied parts of Russia, extending into

10206-551: The cultural and historical values of the Ingush people were lost. According to Human Rights Watch : The fighting was the first armed conflict on Russian territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union. When it ended after the deployment of Russian troops, most of the estimated 34,500–64,000 Ingush residing in the Prigorodnyi region and North Ossetia as a whole had been forcibly displaced by Ossetian forces, often supported by Russian troops. There are no authoritative figures for

10332-575: The earliest known traces of horses in warfare . The genetic makeup of speakers of the Uralic language family in northern Europe was shaped by migration from Siberia that began at least 3,500 years ago. In the 3rd to 4th centuries CE, the Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in southern Russia, which was later overrun by Huns . Between the 3rd and 6th centuries CE, the Bosporan Kingdom , which

10458-594: The early 1980s, the ethno-political situation in the region sharply escalated. There were riots among the Ossetian population of a number of villages in the Prigorodny district (Oktyabrskoye, Kambileevskoye, Chermen). At crowded meetings there were demands for forced eviction of Ingush from the North Ossetian ASSR; leaflets with threats against Ingush appeared. Ensuring the rights and cultural needs of

10584-450: The efforts of Russian explorers , developing into the Russian Empire , which remains the third-largest empire in history . However, with the Russian Revolution in 1917, Russia's monarchic rule was abolished and eventually replaced by the Russian SFSR —the world's first constitutionally socialist state . Following the Russian Civil War , the Russian SFSR established the Soviet Union with three other Soviet republics , within which it

10710-482: The end of October, things came to an armed confrontation, with the Ossetian side relying on the support of the Russian army. The ideas of "return of lands" and "restoration of historical justice" have been popular among the Ingush since their return from deportation. For the first time, demands to return the Prigorodny district were voiced on January 16-19, 1973, during open speeches by Ingush intellectuals in Grozny. In

10836-481: The first Europeans to reach and colonise Alaska . In 1803–1806, the first Russian circumnavigation was made. In 1820, a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica . During the Napoleonic Wars , Russia joined alliances with various European powers, and fought against France. The French invasion of Russia at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 reached Moscow, but eventually failed as

10962-564: The first Russian feudal representative body (the Zemsky Sobor ), revamped the military, curbed the influence of the clergy, and reorganised local government. During his long reign, Ivan nearly doubled the already large Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates: Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga , and the Khanate of Sibir in southwestern Siberia. Ultimately, by the end of

11088-530: The first half of the 19th century, Russia also conquered the Caucasus . Catherine's successor, her son Paul , was unstable and focused predominantly on domestic issues . Following his short reign, Catherine's strategy was continued with Alexander I's (1801–1825) wresting of Finland from the weakened Sweden in 1809, and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. In North America, the Russians became

11214-649: The first time Ingush deputies appeared in the Ordzhonikidze City Executive Committee and the Prigorodny District Executive Committee. However, much remained the same: authorities continued to limit the registration of Ingush in the district, Ingush children couldn't receive a normal education, discrimination in employment continued and Ingush were negatively portrayed in historical and fiction literature. The tensions increased in early 1991, during

11340-505: The form of a constructive pacification program and failed to ensure legal order in the zone of inter-ethnic tension. When the conflict escalated, the Center shared the primitive version of "Ingush aggression", and instead of separating the parties and stopping inter-communal violence, its representatives rashly distributed automatic and other weapons to Ossetian civilians, and even more riskily decided to reach Chechnya with armored vehicles using

11466-471: The government also lacked any programs to support the Ingush language and culture in the republic. The Russian language has in fact completely replaced Ossetian and other languages in all the most important spheres of use: from state institutions and the media to education and services. Language Russification in the republic was a much more unpleasant challenge for the Ingush than for the Ossetians. In 1989,

11592-485: The government, which led to the rise of Russian oligarchs . Many of the newly rich moved billions in cash and assets outside of the country in an enormous capital flight . The depression of the economy led to the collapse of social services—the birth rate plummeted while the death rate skyrocketed, and millions plunged into poverty; while extreme corruption, as well as criminal gangs and organised crime rose significantly. In late 1993, tensions between Yeltsin and

11718-470: The highlanders from part of the plains and foothill settlements, a strip was created on the lands that previously belonged to the Ingush, which was a line of Cossack villages, the Sunzha Line , dividing the plain from mountainous Ingushetia . In the middle of the 19th century, the Ingush were evicted from a number of villages located on the territory of the present-day Prigorodny district, after which

11844-535: The latter deliberately starved to death or otherwise killed 3.3 million Soviet POWs , and a vast number of civilians, as the " Hunger Plan " sought to fulfil Generalplan Ost . Although the Wehrmacht had considerable early success, their attack was halted in the Battle of Moscow . Subsequently, the Germans were dealt major defeats first at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–1943, and then in

11970-564: The leadership of the North Caucasusian Krai transferred the city of Vladikavkaz (called from 1931 Ordzhonikidze) into North Ossetian ASSR. Two historical circumstances are of particular relevance to the prehistory of the conflict. One of them is connected with the Bolshevik experiment of territorialization of ethnicity, the creation of internal administrative formations on an ethnic basis. Having been deprived of Vladikavkaz,

12096-689: The local status quo, fearing further politicization of ethnicity. Ossetian-Ingush contradictions arise again and again. The Russian authorities are also afraid that the start of revision of internal administrative borders (i.e. the decision to transfer Prigorodny district under the jurisdiction of Ingushetia) may cause a "domino effect" for other constituent entities of the Russian Federation. Chechnya and Ingushetia, Kalmykia and Astrakhan Oblast, and various districts within Dagestan have disputed borders. A program unveiled in May 2005 for expediting

12222-686: The meantime, both the Bolsheviks and White movement carried out campaigns of deportations and executions against each other, known respectively as the Red Terror and White Terror . By the end of the violent civil war, Russia's economy and infrastructure were heavily damaged, and as many as 10 million perished during the war, mostly civilians. Millions became White émigrés , and the Russian famine of 1921–1922 claimed up to five million victims. On 30 December 1922, Lenin and his aides formed

12348-731: The might of the Russian army, which had pounded Ingush villages in North Ossetia and part of Ingushetia. By the end of July 1994, many Ingush were refugees. Only half of the Ingush who lived in Prigorodny district had official registration in Prigorodny district; back in the Soviet years they had tried not to register them in the disputed territory so that they would move to the ChIASSR rather than stay in Ossetia. Those who had lived for many years without registration now faced difficulties: they could not obtain land or rebuild their homes. It

12474-609: The more recently coined noun россиянин , rossiianyn , "Russian" in the sense of citizen of the Russian state. According to the Primary Chronicle , the word Rus' is derived from the Rus' people , who were a Swedish tribe, and where the three original members of the Rurikid dynasty came from. The Finnish word for Swedes, ruotsi , has the same origin. Later archeological studies mostly confirmed this theory. The first human settlement on Russia dates back to

12600-641: The north-east. Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky , Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of the Neva in 1240, as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle on the Ice in 1242. Kievan Rus' finally fell to the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240, which resulted in the sacking of Kiev and other cities, as well as the death of a major part of the population. The invaders, later known as Tatars , formed

12726-432: The number at 64,000. According to the 1989 census 32,783 Ingush lived in the North Ossetian ASSR; three years later the passport service of the republic put the number at 34,500. According to the migration service of North Ossetia, about 9,000 Ossetians were forced to flee the Prigorodnyi region and seek temporary shelter elsewhere; the majority have returned. There was no official position or political and legal assessment by

12852-616: The number of Ingush forcibly evicted from the Prigorodnyi region and other parts of North Ossetia, because there were no accurate figures for the total pre-1992 Ingush population of Prigorodnyi and North Ossetia. Ingush often lived there illegally and thus were not counted by a census. Thus the Russian Federal Migration Service counts 46,000 forcibly displaced from North Ossetia, while the Territorial Migration Service of Ingushetiya puts

12978-620: The obstinate resistance in combination with the bitterly cold Russian winter led to a disastrous defeat of invaders, in which the pan-European Grande Armée faced utter destruction. Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly , the Imperial Russian Army ousted Napoleon and drove throughout Europe in the War of the Sixth Coalition , ultimately entering Paris. Alexander I controlled Russia's delegation at

13104-597: The official line. The continued internal struggle in the Bolshevik party culminated in the Great Purge . Under Stalin's leadership, the government launched a command economy , industrialisation of the largely rural country , and collectivisation of its agriculture . During this period of rapid economic and social change, millions of people were sent to penal labour camps , including many political convicts for their suspected or real opposition to Stalin's rule; and millions were deported and exiled to remote areas of

13230-407: The press ; the country also has high levels of perceived corruption . As of 2024, Russia has a high-income economy which ranks eleventh in the world by nominal GDP and fourth at purchasing power parity , relying on its vast mineral and energy resources ; the world's second-largest for oil production and natural gas production . Russia is home to 32 UNESCO World Heritage Sites . According to

13356-565: The return of the Ingush displaced persons to their abandoned homes in Prigorodny Raion by the end of 2006 was only partially implemented. Consequently, as of October 2016, just 23,430 Ingush had succeeded in returning, with a similar number still in Ingushetia, according to Magomed Mutsolgov, head of the NGO Mashr. Those who have returned experience problems finding work; Ingush and Ossetian children attend separate schools. Neither has

13482-589: The rivalry between the two major European empires came to be known as the Great Game . The late 19th century saw the rise of various socialist movements in Russia. Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 by revolutionary terrorists. The reign of his son Alexander III (1881–1894) was less liberal but more peaceful. Under last Russian emperor, Nicholas II (1894–1917), the Revolution of 1905

13608-502: The rouble. High budget deficits coupled with increasing capital flight and inability to pay back debts, caused the 1998 Russian financial crisis , which resulted in a further GDP decline. Prigorodny District, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania Prigorodny District ( Russian : При́городный райо́н , romanized :  Prigorodny Raion ; Ossetian : Горæтгæроны район , romanized:  Gorætgærony Rajon ; Ingush : ГӀалме Шахьар , romanized:  Ghalme Shaꜧar )

13734-508: The same time, there was a steady increase in incidents of organized harassment, kidnapping and rape against Ingush inhabitants of North Ossetia by their Ossetian neighbours, police, security forces and militia. Ingush fighters marched to take control over Prigorodny District and on the night of October 30, 1992, open warfare broke out, which lasted for a week. The first people killed were respectively Ossetian and Ingush militsiya staff (as they had basic weapons). While Ingush militias were fighting

13860-876: The seat of the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church moved to Moscow in 1325, its influence increased. Moscow's last rival, the Novgorod Republic , prospered as the chief fur trade centre and the easternmost port of the Hanseatic League . Led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow, the united army of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. Moscow gradually absorbed its parent duchy and surrounding principalities, including formerly strong rivals such as Tver and Novgorod . Ivan III ("the Great") threw off

13986-855: The site of the village Alkhaste — the Feldmarshalskaya stanitsa ; on the site of the village Ghazhara-Yurt — the Nesterovskaya stanitsa ; on the site of the village Ildarkha-Ghala — the Karabulakskaya stanitsa ; on the site of the village Ebarg-Yurt — the Troitskaya stanitsa ; on the site of the village Sholkhi — the Tarskiy khutor , as well as the Sleptsovskaya, Datikhskaya, Mikhailovksya and Galashevskaya stanitsa's . After decades of hostilities and skirmishes between

14112-461: The snow and rain. Many are naked, with only small children wrapped in blankets. The Ingush called this path "the path of death", dozens of women and children have already died on it, falling into the gorge, and dozens of civilians have died of hypothermia. There were cases of childbirth and miscarriages in the mountains. Ingush tribesmen on the other side of the border provided assistance to the refugees on bare enthusiasm. The dead Ingush were buried in

14238-596: The state of the Golden Horde , which ruled over Russia for the next two centuries. Only the Novgorod Republic escaped foreign occupation after it agreed to pay tribute to the Mongols. Galicia-Volhynia would later be absorbed by Lithuania and Poland , while the Novgorod Republic continued to prosper in the north. In the northeast, the Byzantine-Slavic traditions of Kievan Rus' were adapted to form

14364-523: The time Chechen separatists declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittent guerrilla war was fought between the rebel groups and Russian forces. Terrorist attacks against civilians were carried out by Chechen separatists, claiming the lives of thousands of Russian civilians. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia assumed responsibility for settling the latter's external debts. In 1992, most consumer price controls were eliminated, causing extreme inflation and significantly devaluing

14490-591: The two sides expand "social, economic and cultural relations". The signed agreements, however, have not eliminated all existing problems. The Ingush demand the return of refugees to Prigorodny district and the implementation of the federal laws "On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples" and "On the Establishment of the Ingush Republic". The Russian authorities are not interested in changing

14616-515: Was Ruthenia . In Russian, the current name of the country, Россия ( Rossiya ), comes from the Byzantine Greek name for Rus', Ρωσία ( Rosía ). A new form of the name Rus ' , Росия ( Rosiya ), was borrowed from the Greek term and first attested in 1387. The name Rossiia appeared in Russian sources in the late 15th century, but until the end of the 17th century

14742-449: Was elected President of the Russian SFSR. In August 1991, a coup d'état attempt by members of Gorbachev's government, directed against Gorbachev and aimed at preserving the Soviet Union, instead led to the end of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. On 25 December 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union , along with contemporary Russia, fourteen other post-Soviet states emerged. The economic and political collapse of

14868-631: Was a Hellenistic polity that succeeded the Greek colonies, was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars . The Khazars , who were of Turkic origin , ruled the steppes between the Caucasus in the south, to the east past the Volga river basin, and west as far as Kyiv on the Dnieper river until the 10th century. After them came the Pechenegs who created

14994-670: Was dissolved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee . An alternative socialist establishment co-existed, the Petrograd Soviet , wielding power through the democratically elected councils of workers and peasants, called soviets . The rule of the new authorities only aggravated the crisis in the country instead of resolving it, and eventually, the October Revolution , led by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin , overthrew

15120-515: Was found at Kostyonki–Borshchyovo , and at Sungir , dating back to 34,600 years ago—both in western Russia . Humans reached Arctic Russia at least 40,000 years ago, in Mamontovaya Kurya . Ancient North Eurasian populations from Siberia genetically similar to Mal'ta–Buret' culture and Afontova Gora were an important genetic contributor to Ancient Native Americans and Eastern Hunter-Gatherers . The Kurgan hypothesis places

15246-581: Was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, and lived some 90,000 years ago, was also found within the latter cave. Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about 45,000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave . The first trace of an early modern human in Russia dates back to 45,000 years, in Western Siberia . The discovery of high concentration cultural remains of anatomically modern humans , from at least 40,000 years ago,

15372-706: Was part of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . On March 7, 1944, after the deportation of Chechens and Ingush to Kazakhstan and Central Asia, the territory was included in the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . At the same time, the mountainous part of this territory (the southern region of present-day Ingushetia) was transferred to the Georgian SSR . On November 24, 1956,

15498-584: Was populated by Finno-Ugrian peoples. From the 7th century onwards, the incoming East Slavs slowly assimilated the native Finno-Ugrians. The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians , the Vikings who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas. According to the Primary Chronicle ,

15624-487: Was the foundation of the United Nations Security Council . During the war, Soviet civilian and military death were about 26–27 million , accounting for about half of all World War II casualties . The Soviet economy and infrastructure suffered massive devastation, which caused the Soviet famine of 1946–1947 . However, at the expense of a large sacrifice, the Soviet Union emerged as

15750-591: Was the largest and principal constituent. At the expense of millions of lives , the Soviet Union underwent rapid industrialisation in the 1930s and later played a decisive role for the Allies in World War II by leading large-scale efforts on the Eastern Front . With the onset of the Cold War , it competed with the United States for ideological dominance and international influence . The Soviet era of

15876-569: Was triggered by the humiliating failure of the Russo-Japanese War . The uprising was put down, but the government was forced to concede major reforms ( Russian Constitution of 1906 ), including granting freedoms of speech and assembly , the legalisation of political parties, and the creation of an elected legislative body, the State Duma . In 1914, Russia entered World War I in response to Austria-Hungary 's declaration of war on Russia's ally Serbia , and fought across multiple fronts while isolated from its Triple Entente allies. In 1916,

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