Nakh peoples
The Nakh peoples are a group of North Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cultural similarities. These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen, Ingush and Bats peoples of the North Caucasus, including closely related minor or historical groups.
The ethnonyms "Vainakh" and "Nakh"
"Nakh peoples" and "Vainakh peoples" are two terms that were coined by Soviet ethnographers such as the Russian linguist and Ingush ethnographer. The reasoning behind the creation of these terms was to unite the closely related nations of Chechen and Ingush into one term. The terms "Vainakh" and "Nakh" were first used as a term to unite two peoples in 1928. It was subsequently popularized by other Soviet authors, poets, and historians such as Mamakaev and Volkova in their research. According to the historian Victor Schnirelmann, the terms "Vainakh" and "Nakh" were introduced more actively during the period from the 1960s through the 1980s. The first documented collective term used to refer to the Nakh peoples in general, "Kists" was introduced by Johann Anton Güldenstädt in the 1770s. Julius von Klaproth believed the term Kists only applied to the Kistin society of Ingushetia, and instead used the Tatar term "Mizdschegi" to refer to the Nakh peoples.The ethnonym "Nakhchi"
The term Nakhchiy at the end of the 18th and beginning of 19th centuries was mentioned as the name that the Ingush gave to the Chechens and not as the self-name of the Ingush. Starting in the second half of the 19th century, the term was used by some Russian officers, historians and linguists for both the Chechen and Ingush nations. Today, the term is in its modern lowland version of "Nokhchi" and is only used by Chechens and Pankisi Kists. In 1859, Adolf Berge was the second one to use this term for both the Chechens and Ingush. The famous Russian linguist Peter von Uslar, who studied the North Caucasian languages, also referred to both nations in 1888 as "Nakhchuy"/"Nakhchiy". This classification was also used by Potto,,, and many others during the 19th century.According to Umalat Laudaev, the first Chechen ethnographer and historian, Nazranians used this ethnonym occasionally:
However, it was mentioned by Peter Simon Pallas in the late 18th century that a clear distinction between self-designation of the Ingush and Chechens had already existed:
The 19th century historian published several works about Chechen and Ingush ethnography. He proposed to use the term "Nakhchuy" for both the Chechens and Ingush. This, however, had no fruition in Caucasology, mainly due to the fact that the Ingush commonly referred to themselves as "Ghalghaï", while the Chechens called themselves "Nakhchoy" or "Nokhchoy".
The oldest mention of Nakhchiy occurred in 1310 by the Georgian Patriarch Cyril Donauri, who mentions the "People of Nakhche" among Tushetians, Avars and many other Northeast Caucasian nations. The term Nakhchiy has also been connected to the city Nakhchivan and the nation of Nakhchamatyan by many Soviet and modern historians. Chechen manuscripts in Arabic from the early 1820s do mention a certain Nakhchuvan as the homeland of all Nakhchiy.
Etymology of the ethnonym Nakhchi
The etymology of "Nakhchi" is believed to have come from "Nakh" + "-chi" or "Nakh" + "Chuo". Chechen researcher claimed that the terms "Nakh" and "Nakhchi" are not the same, and have different foundations and different origins. Whatever the case, contemporary historians and linguists agree that the ethnonym includes the term "Nakh". Many historians such as Potto, Berge, Gan, Dubrovin believed that it meant "the nation". Linguists like Arbi Vagapov have also pointed out that similar terms are found in other Northeast Caucasian languages such as Rutul where "Nukhchi" translates to "Tribesman".Chechen ethnographer Umalat Laudaev offered a different etymology for the origin of the ethnonym Nakhchi:
This version has been criticized by many authors including the Chechen linguist who believed the etymology made no sense. Linguists and historians such as Shavlaeva and Tesaev, however, believed the etymology confused "Nakhch" with the Chechen term "Nakhch", which has the same root. In their version, the etymology would mean "the processed ones". Authors such as Berge mentioned also that the term "Nakhchi" could mean "the people of excellence".
Historical mentions of Nakhchi
The ethnonym "Ghalghaï"
[|Ghalghaï] is the self-name of the Ingush, a Caucasian people, that is most often associated with the word "ghāla" – meaning "tower" or "fortress" and the plural form of the suffix of person – "gha", thus, translated as "people/inhabitants of towers", though according to some researchers the ethnonym has a more ancient origin. Some scholars associate it with the ancient Gargareans and Gelaï mentioned in the 1st century in the work of the ancient historian and geographer Strabo. In Georgian sources, in the form of Gligvi, modern researchers mention them living in the Darial Gorge at the time of the deployment of Mirian I's forces into the Darial Pass in the 1st century. They are also mentioned in the 18th century edition of Georgian Chronicles during the reign of Kvirike III. In Russian sources, "Ghalghaï" first becomes known in the second half of the 16th century, in the form of "Kolkans"/"Kalkans", "Kolki"/"Kalki", "Kalkan people". The famous Georgian historian and linguist Ivane Javakhishvili proposed to use Ghalghaï as a general name or classification for the Ingush, Chechen and Bats languages:History
;9th–12th centuries: An association of clans called Durdzuks is mentioned by the Persian writers Ibn al-Faqih and al-Baladzori in the 9th to 10th centuries, stating "the construction of Chosroes Anushirvanom in Durzukia 12 gates and stone fortifications".;1239: Destruction of the Alania capital of Maghas and Alan confederacy of the Northern Caucasian highlanders, nations, and tribes by Batu Khan. "Maghas was destroyed in the beginning of 1239 by the hordes of Batu Khan. Historically, Maghas was located at approximately the same place on which the new capital of Ingushetia is now built." However, there are many other theories as to where Maghas was originally located, such as in Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria or North-Ossetia.
;13th–14th centuries: Independence wars against Tatar-Mongol hordes and the army of Tamerlane.
;14th–16th centuries: The State of Simsir was a union of Vainakh teips. They started a national struggle of liberation from the Golden Horde. After the Mongol invasion, Islam started its spread in the region. The spread of Islam seems to have started in the lowland part of the Vainakh states at this time, associated with the advent of the Arabic language and Arabic writing. Inscriptions on monuments from this time, preserved in some Vainakh villages, also testify to this.
;17th century – present: Ongoing struggle over the independence of Chechnya; Ingush remain less openly rebellious, but still have a particularly problematic conflict with the Ossetes; Batsbi and Kists are considered Georgians and are part of Georgia.
;1829–1859: Caucasian Imamate
;1917–1922: Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus
;1919–1920: North Caucasian Emirate
;1921–1924: Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Russian SFSR
Social structure
Traditionally, Nakh peoples were known as a society with a highly developed and complex clan system. Individuals are united in family groups called "Tsa" – house. Several Tsas are part of the "Gar" -branch or "Nekh"-road, a group of Gars is in turn called a teip, a unit of tribal organization of Vainakh people. Teip has its own Council of Elders and unites people from the political, economic and military sides. Teips leave all cases to the democratically elected representatives of houses i.e. "Tsa". The number of participants of Teipan-Kheli depends on the number of houses.Some believe that most teips made unions called shahars and tukkhums, a military-economic or military-political union of teips. However, this has been heavily disputed by several historians and ethnographers, including Dalgat who claims that most Chechens never used tukkhums. He also claims that they were only used by some societies in the lowlands.
The national scale issues were addressed through Mehk-Khel, the People's Council. Representatives of the Council were elected by each Teip Council and had an enormous influence on the destiny of the people. They could start a war or prohibit and prevent any teip from starting one. Mehk-Khel could gather in different places at different times. It used to gather in Terloy-Mokhk and Akkhi-Mokhk's Galain-Chozh region. A gigantic Mehk-Kheli stone still stands in Galain-Chozh, around which Mehk-Kheli members solved issues.
Political structure
Chechen-Ingush society has customarily been egalitarian, unstratified, and classless. Traditionally, there was no formal political organization and no political or economic ranking.Many observers, including famous Russians such as Leo Tolstoy, have been very impressed by the democratic nature of the indigenous Chechen governments prior to Russian conquest. According to the Western Ichkerophile Tony Wood, the Vainakh peoples, in particular the Chechens, could be described as one of the few nations in the world with an indigenous system highly resemblant of democracy. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a couple of Circassian tribes overthrew their traditional aristocracy and established a democratic, egalitarian society, with some adoptions from the Nakh system. This advance, which may have spread eventually to all of the Circassian tribes, was halted by their political state being annihilated by Russian conquest, a fate later shared by the rest of the Caucasus.
It is notable that the Chechen and Ingush systems, as well as the system later adopted from them by some Eastern Circassian tribes, resembles the typical Western democratic republic. It has a central government with a legislative body, a body resemblant of an executive branch as well as a judicial branch. The adat and other bodies have served as the constitution. The members of all three of the main national councils of the nation were elected, producing an indigenous democracy of the Nakh peoples.
During the Soviet Union period, as well as during Ramzan Kadyrov's regime, the Teip-Council system was strongly criticized by the federal and local administration installed in Chechnya and Ingushetia, who viewed it as a destabilizing force and an obstacle to maintaining order. They said that such a system was illustrative of the anarchic nature of the Caucasian ethos.
The democratic and egalitarian nature, the values of freedom and equality of Chechen society have been cited as factors contributing to their resistance to Russian rule.