31 Facts About Dzhokhar Dudayev

Dzhokhar Dudayev served as the first president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 1991 until his assassination in 1996.

Dzhokhar Dudayev was born in Chechnya in 1944, days before his family and the entire Chechen nation were deported to Central Asia by the Soviet regime in the Chechen genocide as part of an ethnic cleansing program which affected several million members of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union between the 1930s and 1950s.

Dzhokhar Dudayev's family was allowed to return to his native Chechnya in 1956, after Joseph Stalin's death.

From 1962, Dzhokhar Dudayev served in the Soviet Air Forces, reaching the rank of major general.

Dzhokhar Dudayev commanded strategic nuclear bomber aircraft divisions based in Poltava and Tartu, and was awarded several state orders of the Soviet Union, most notably the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star.

In 1991, Dzhokhar Dudayev refused orders from Moscow to suppress Estonia's independence movement, and subsequently resigned from the Soviet Armed Forces before returning to Chechnya.

Dzhokhar Dudayev became president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria after a referendum in October 1991, and unilaterally declared the republic's independence from the Soviet Union.

Dzhokhar Dudayev was born in Yalkhoroy from the Tsechoy teip in the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, just a few days before the forced deportation of his family together with the entire Chechen population on the orders of Lavrentiy Beria.

Dzhokhar Dudayev was the thirteenth youngest child of veterinarian Musa and Rabiat Dudayev.

Dzhokhar Dudayev spent the first 13 years of his life in internal exile in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.

Dzhokhar Dudayev's family was only able to return to Chechnya in 1957.

Dzhokhar Dudayev joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1968 and from 1971 to 1974 studied at the prestigious Gagarin Air Force Academy.

Dzhokhar Dudayev married Alla, a Russian poet and the daughter of a Soviet officer, with whom he had three children.

In 1962, Dzhokhar Dudayev began serving in the Soviet Air Force where he rose to the rank of Major-General, becoming its first Chechen general.

Dzhokhar Dudayev served in a strategic bombing unit of the Soviet Air Force in Siberia and Ukraine.

Reportedly from 1986 to 1987, Dzhokhar Dudayev had participated in bombing raids in western Afghanistan.

For example, Sergei Stepashin asserted Dzhokhar Dudayev participated in carpet bombing.

Dzhokhar Dudayev rose steadily in the Air Force, assuming command of the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division of the Soviet Long Range Aviation at Tartu, Estonia, in 1987 gaining the rank of Major-General.

Dzhokhar Dudayev learned Estonian and showed great tolerance for restoration of Estonian independence when in autumn 1990 he ignored the orders to shut down the Estonian television and parliament.

In 1990, his air division was withdrawn from Estonia and Dzhokhar Dudayev resigned from the Soviet military.

In May 1990, Dzhokhar Dudayev returned to Grozny, the Chechen capital, to devote himself to local politics.

Dzhokhar Dudayev was elected head of the Executive Committee of the unofficial opposition All-National Congress of the Chechen People, which advocated sovereignty for Chechnya as a separate republic of the Soviet Union.

In November 1991, the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin dispatched troops to Grozny, but they were withdrawn when Dzhokhar Dudayev's forces prevented them from leaving the airport.

Dzhokhar Dudayev retaliated by dissolving parliament and other organs of power.

Dzhokhar Dudayev continued to insist that his forces would prevail after the conventional warfare had finished, and the Chechen guerrilla fighters continued to operate across the entire republic.

On 21 April 1996, while using a satellite phone, Dzhokhar Dudayev was assassinated by two laser-guided missiles, after his location was detected by a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which intercepted his phone call.

At the time, Dzhokhar Dudayev was talking to Konstantin Borovoy, a deputy of the State Duma in Moscow.

The death of Dzhokhar Dudayev was announced on the interrupted television broadcast by Shamil Basayev, the Chechen guerrilla commander.

Dzhokhar Dudayev was succeeded by his Vice-President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and then, after the 1997 popular elections, by his wartime Chief of Staff, Aslan Maskhadov.

Dzhokhar Dudayev was survived by his wife, Alla, and their sons.

The house now hosts Hotel Barclay, and the former office of Dzhokhar Dudayev has been converted into Dzhokhar Dudayev's Room.