Battle of Grozny (November 1994)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=November 1994 Battle of Grozny
partof=First Chechen War
place=Grozny, Chechnya
date=November 26, 1994
result=Decisive Chechen victory
combatant1= mercenaries
combatant2=
commander1=Umar Avturkhanov
Beslan Gantemirov
commander2=Aslan Maskhadov
Shamil Basayev
strength1=5,000 Checens, 85 Russian soldiers, 170 Russian tanks
strength2=
casualties1=unknown number of Chechen losses,at least 67 Russian tanks destroyed
casualties2= estimated in the hundreds
campaign=
Campaignbox First Chechen War

November 1994 Battle of Grozny was a November 26 1994, failed attempt to seize the city of Grozny, the Chechen capital, and overthrow the separatist government of Dzhokhar Dudayev. The attack was staged by the forces of the anti-Dudayev opposition with the active support of Russian tanks and aircraft.

What was supposed to be the clandestine operation of regime change ended in an utter fiasco, prompting Moscow decided to carry out a large-scale military invasion of the republic next month.

Background

In the summer of 1994 the Federal Counter-Intelligence Service (FSK) began active and open co-operation with the Chechen opposition leaders. Forces of Umar Avturkhanov (former officer of the Soviet MVD) and Beslan Gantemirov (former mayor of Grozny and Dudayev's ally-turned-enemy) not only received money from Moscow (a figure of 150 billion roubles was mentioned) but weapons as well.

August and September 1994 saw the outbreak of fighting between the opposition and Dudayev's forces. By this time, the opposition had established a force of several hundred men, equipped with armoured vehicles and backed by Russian helicopters based in an air base at Mozdok, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. This military campaign climaxed in mid-October 1994, when Gantamirov's forces unsuccessfully tried to take Grozny by assault for the first time.

Disappointed by their failures and aware of their military weakness up to and after the October assault, the opposition (with the help from the former Russian Duma speaker and ethnic Chechen Ruslan Khasbulatov) intensified their lobbying with the FSK and Russian President Boris Yeltsin's staff in favour of more direct involvement on Moscow's part. As a result, Avturkhanov and Gantemirov, who by then had joined their military forces, received all the weapons, instructors, training and media support they requested, setting the ground for the final assault.

Tank crewmen and other soldiers from Russia's elite formations in the Moscow Military District were recruited as a mercenaries for the task. Reportedly, they were offered $1,500 and provided with fake documents. The issues of recruitment and transfer of weapons involved the FSK deputy director Sergei Stepashin (supervising the Caucasus area) and Russia's deputy minister for nationalities Aleksander Kotenkov.

The battle

Shortly before the storm of Grozny, the Russian military intelligence (GRU) agents reported that Dudayev's army was completely incapable of offering serious resistance, in spite of the fact that three Russian T-72 tanks were destroyed even on their way to the city.

On the morning of November 26, forces of the Chechen Provisional Council entered capital in armoured columns from three sides with the support of unmarked federal Mil Mi-24 helicopters. According to the account by the pro-Dudayev field commander Dalkhan Kozayev, the attacking forces numbered 42 tanks and eight BTR-80 wheeled armoured personnel carriers, a number of other vehicles, and more than 3,000 men. [http://smallwarsjournal.com/documents/khozhevinterview.pdf Dalkhan Khozhaev ] ] However, discipline in the Chechen opposition units was extremely poor and according to some sources ultimately not more than 1,000 of them were actually present in Grozny.

They were met with improvised but fierce defense of the government forces in the city, including in the area of the Chechen presidential palace, and soon the assault turned into a disaster. After some ten hours of intense fighting, Dudayev's forces soundly defeated the attackers. Dudayev's loyalists claimed they killed 350 attackers and knocked-out 20 tanks. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981969,00.html Fire in the Caucasus] , "TIME", Dec. 12, 1994] Four to five undamaged tanks were captured intact after the crews surrendered or fled. In addition, four Russian helicopters and a Sukhoi Su-25 fighter-bomber were reportedly downed."Russia's Strategy in Chechnya: A Case Study in Failure", Maxwell Air Force Base Air War College, April 1997] Over 70 Russian soldiers and officers were captured, [ [http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/Russia.htm Russia's War in Chechnya: Victims Speak Out] , Human Rights Watch, January 1995] most of them in a mass surrender after being cut off in Kirov Park. Some sources say even 120 mercenaries were captured. [Red Dawn in Chechnya: A Campaign Chronicle, "ARMOR", March-April 1995] All that remained of the Russian tank unit and the supporting formations of the Chechen opposition had left the city the same day.

(The corresponding Russian Wikipedia article mentions the official figures and estimates of 35 to 40 T-72 tanks, of which between four and 18 managed to withdraw from the city.)

Aftermath

This defeat was truly catastrophic, not only in military but in political terms. The Russian complicity was at first denied by Moscow, but then acknowledged when Dudayev's men paraded several captured Russian soldiers before television cameras. [ [http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/99summer/thomas.htm The Battle of Grozny: Deadly Classroom for Urban Combat] "Parameters", Summer 1999]

The fiasco of November 26 attack exhausted Russia's means of waging war against Dudayev by proxy means and leading to launching an all out direct intervention in December. Russian Defence Minister Pavel Grachev boasted that it would take a single Russian Airborne Troops regiment only two hours to capture Grozny. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4063033.stm Chechnya: 10 years of conflict] , BBC News, 2 December, 2004] The First Chechen War officially began.

ee also

*Battle of Grozny
*Bay of Pigs Invasion

References

External links

* [http://www.amina.com/article/warstart.html How the war started] Chechen Republic Online