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CENTRAL GROZNY It was supposed to be a quick little conflict, more a boost for Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s poll ratings than a real war. It would, Defense Minister Pavel Grachev said, take a few men and a couple of days to crush the impudent uprising in Chechnya. Instead, it became a bloodbath. In a horrendous botched assault on Grozny on New Year’s Eve, Russian troops suffered thousands of casualties at the hands of improvised groups of Chechen guerrillas. For the next 20 months, each grim turn of the war — from massacres to hostage takings to the Chechens’ final recapture of their capital — was covered by Russia’s newly independent media. In August 1996, a humiliating cease-fire was signed in which Russia tacitly recognized Chechnya’s independence. At least 6,000 Russian soldiers and an estimated 50,000 Chechen civilians died. It was Yeltsin’s darkest hour. And it isn’t over yet — Paul Quinn-Judge

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CHECHNYA

Grozny


	Akhmed Zakayev Chechen actor-turned-military commander who is now the chief overseas representative of secessionist Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov

Posted Sunday, August 10, 2003; 16.11BST
I was made Chechen Minister of Culture in November and in late December of 1994 my ministry was bombed.

I tried to close the door of my office with a piece of wire — I don’t know why, there wasn’t much left — went out into the square in front of the building, where a militia unit was being formed, and joined up on the spot, even though I had no military experience.

As soon as the attack on the city started, we were in the thick of it, on Pervomaiskaya Street [in the center of Grozny] and then at the presidential palace. I was put in charge of uniting the various militias that had sprung up, then became a front commander.

At the beginning of the war, someone asked Jokhar [Dudayev, a former Soviet Air Force general who was then head of the breakaway republic] how long the war would last. ‘Fifty years,’ he said.

For a long time, I thought he was joking. But he was right. I have no illusions. The civilized world has no interest in us. They have betrayed us again. Putin has a maniacal hatred for Chechens.

What we have to do is outlive his presidency and hope for something better.

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Also in TIME

On New Year's Eve, the Miseries of Minsk
As Russia hikes up the cost of gas for Belarus, the mood turns gloomy

Mogadishu at 60 Miles an Hour
Arms merchants are once again doing brisk business after a rapid change of power in this tough town, but so far the peace has held

The Year of The Nuke
A rundown of the world's nuclear powerhouses, and what to expect in the coming months

A Fragile Hold On Power
Somalia's new leaders — including the son of an infamous warlord — struggle to control the country

EXHIBITION

Europe Then & Now, a TIME photographic exhibition based on this issue, opens Aug. 18, 2003, in the Olivier Exhibition Foyer of the National Theatre, London.