The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, made possible with German complicity, led to the breakup of the Russian Empire and its replacement with the USSR. By this point, as Abkhaz academic Stanislav Lakoba noted (via Abkhaz World), the Caucasians had absorbed the lessons of the 19th century well. Unity was the key to freedom and independence. So in 1917, the Caucasus Mountain Peoples’ Republic, which united Abkhaz, Chechens, Circassians, Ingush, and others under one flag, was born. The republic was given a fighting chance in 1918 when Germany and the Ottoman Empire recognized its independence.
When World War I ended, however, the Caucasian independence movement lost support, as both Germany and the Ottomanb Empire were dismembered to form the Weimar and Turkish republics, respectively. The new republic was on its own, and the nationalists were soon replaced with Muslim theocrats that sought the continuation of Shamil’s 19th-century imamate. In 1919, according to “Creating New States,” they succeeded, renaming the republic the “North Caucasian Emirate.”
The new state did not survive. Already weakened by communist uprisings within its own borders, the Red Army swept in and annexed it. Fighting continued into 1925, but Chechnya would not break free of Soviet rule until the federation collapsed in 1991.
