What to read to understand Chechnya

FOR A SMALL territory of 1.5m people, Chechnya has played a big role in shaping modern Russia. The Chechen Wars of the 1990s and early 2000s were the only large conflicts, among those that followed the Soviet collapse, to happen inside the Russian Federation. They were also among the bloodiest: around 300,000 people died and the region’s capital, Grozny, was obliterated. Russia pursued the wars to prevent secession. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, lamented the “geopolitical disaster” of the Soviet breakup and warned in 2005 that Chechnya showed how Russia itself could catch the “epidemic of disintegration”. Since major hostilities ended around 2003, the Kremlin has used Chechnya as a model for how to subdue rebels. The Kremlin first installed Akhmad Kadyrov, a former rebel, as leader of the republic. He was succeeded, in 2007, by his son Ramzan. The younger Mr Kadyrov has amassed vast wealth and built a private army known as the kadyrovtsy. A faithful ally to Mr Putin, he has sent thousands of soldiers to aid Russian invaders in Ukraine. (Pro-independence Chechens, meanwhile, have fought on Kyiv’s side). These four books and one film show how Chechnya got here—and what this corner of the Caucasus says about Russia.