Yeltsin Orders Invasion: The First Chechen War Begins

Russian tanks rolled toward Grozny with the confidence of a superpower and the planning of an afterthought. On December 11, 1994, President Boris Yeltsin ordered Russian forces into the breakaway republic of Chechnya, launching a war that would expose the decay of post-Soviet military power and kill tens of thousands of civilians. Chechnya had declared independence in 1991 under former Soviet Air Force general Dzhokhar Dudayev, taking advantage of the chaos surrounding the Soviet Union's collapse. Moscow initially tolerated the separatist government, preoccupied with its own political and economic turmoil. But by 1994, Yeltsin's government feared that Chechen independence could inspire other restive republics to break away, unraveling what remained of Russian territorial integrity. The invasion began with an air campaign against Grozny, followed by a ground assault involving roughly 40,000 troops. Russian commanders expected a quick victory against a force of perhaps 15,000 Chechen fighters. Instead, they walked into a catastrophe. The Battle of Grozny in January 1995 became one of the most devastating urban engagements since World War II. Chechen fighters, many of them combat veterans, used the city's infrastructure to ambush Russian armored columns. Entire Russian brigades were decimated in the first days. The war ground on for nearly two years. Russian forces eventually captured Grozny but never pacified the countryside. Chechen guerrillas launched devastating counterattacks, including the raid on Budyonnovsk that held a hospital hostage. By the 1996 ceasefire, an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people had died, most of them Chechen civilians. Russia withdrew humiliated, only to return three years later in the Second Chechen War.