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Basayev primer
EFL from the original document dating back to the late 1990s and while it's still long its also very informative concerning Basayev and the possible strategy he's attempting to duplicate with respect to Breslan.Like most controversial figures, there are a number of widely different assessments of this Chechen leader. For many Russians, he embodies the ruthless, criminal characteristics of a terrorist. His name became well known during the bloody events in June 1995, when Basayev and a handful of Chechen combatants, held some 1,500 Russian civilians hostage within the Budennovsk city hospital. Among his countrymen, however, Basayev is a great hero; a composite mix of Robin Hood, George Washington and his 19th Century namesake, Shamil. On more than one occasion, when Russian forces were on the threshold of destroying the remnants of Chechen resistance, Basayev managed to strengthen Chechen resolve and strike the Russians where it hurt. Other than his birthplace, there is nothing in Shamil Basayev's early biography which would indicate his future martial prowess. He was born in 1965 in the small Chechen village of Vedeno. This village is adjacent to the fortress where a century earlier the great Chechen leader Shamil surrendered to Russian forces. For a young Chechen, the exploits of this distant ancestor must have been a source of pride and inspiration. Like many of the other ethnic groups which inhabit the Caucasus, the Chechens value highly the attributes of personal courage, clan loyalty, and expertise in warfare and weaponry. There could be no better role model for a young Chechen than the brave Shamil. Basayev spent his childhood in Vedeno, completing secondary education there in 1982. Upon graduation, he spent two years in the Soviet military. Little is known of his Soviet military record, other than he served as a "fireman". He intended to become a policeman but could not get into law school and so worked in agriculture. By the time he finished school (1990), the first cracks were beginning to appear within the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall had fallen and the national republics of the USSR were beginning to clamor for a greater degree of independence. Glasnost permitted the publication of many of the previously repressed histories. Non-Russians were at last permitted to read uncensored accounts of how they lived before being subjugated by Russian and Soviet power. Ethnic and nationalist symbols of pride were rediscovered. Freedom was in the air, and its scent invigorated these formerly repressed peoples and ethnic groups. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-04 |
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