Ingushetia


The Republic of Ingushetia, also referred to as simply Ingushetia, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation, located in the North Caucasus region.
Its capital is the town of Magas. At 3,000 square km, in terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russia's federal subjects except for the federal cities. It was established on June 4, 1992, after the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was split in two. The republic is home to the indigenous Ingush, a people of Vainakh ancestry and primarily Islamic faith. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 412,529.
Largely due to the Islamic insurgency in the North Caucasus, Ingushetia remains one of the poorest and most unstable regions of Russia. Although the violence has declined since the first decade of the 21st century, the insurgency in neighboring Chechnya has occasionally spilled into Ingushetia. According to Human Rights Watch in 2008, the republic has been destabilized by corruption, a number of high-profile crimes, anti-government protests, attacks on soldiers and officers, Russian military excesses, and a deteriorating human rights situation. According to Russian media, Ingushetia has the lowest alcohol consumption in Russia.

Etymology

The name Ingushetia is derived from the ancient village Angusht, which was renamed as Tarskoye and transferred to North Ossetia in 1944. The Soviets had conducted the deportation of ethnic Chechen and Ingush peoples from here to Siberia on 23 February 1944, a.k.a. operation "Lentil".
The Ingush, a nationality group indigenous to the Caucasus, inhabit mostly Ingushetia. They refer to themselves as Ghalghai and ghai. The Ingush speak the Ingush language, which has a very high degree of mutual intelligibility with neighboring Chechen. The Ingush are traditionally a classless society based on a clan system and unwritten law. Every clan, and each clan member, are viewed as equal. Unlike the neighboring nations in the Caucasus, the Ingush did not develop a social system of superiors or inferiors. The Ingush/Ingushetia were also known by the following names: Gelia, Tschetschna, Ghalghai/Gelgai, Nakh, Vainakh, Kist, Gargar, Dzurdzuk, Ghlighvi, Angushtini, and Mack-aloni.
In their own language, they have identified as Orstkhoi, Nart-Orstkhoi, Galash, Tsori, Dzheirakhoi, Khamhoi, Metshal, Fyappi, and Nyasareth. The self-namings refer to different Vainakh tribes which make up the Ingush population today. The history of the Ingush is closely related to that of the Chechen.
Byzantine and Georgian missionaries partially Christianised the Ingush, although Christianity was weakened by the Mongol invasions. The remains of several churches, notably the Tkhabya-Yerd and the Albe-Yerd, can be found in Ingushetia. Most of Ingush converted to Islam at the end of the 19th century, nearly three centuries after the beginning of Islamization in Chechnya.

Origin of Ingushetia's population

According to Leonti Mroveli, the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, the word Caucasian is derived from the Vainakh ancestor Kavkas. According to Professor George Anchabadze of Ilia State University,
"The Vainakhs are the ancient natives of the Caucasus. It is noteworthy, that according to the genealogical table drawn up by Leonti Mroveli, the legendary forefather of the Vainakhs was "Kavkas", hence the name Kavkasians, one of the ethnicons met in the ancient Georgian written sources, signifying the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush. As appears from the above, the Vainakhs, at least by name, are presented as the most "Caucasian" people of all the Caucasians in the Georgian historical tradition."

The Soviet-Russian anthropologists and scientists N.Ya. Marr, V.V. Bounak, R.M. Munchaev, I.M Dyakonov, E.I. Krupnov and G.A. Melikashvilli wrote in 1935: "Among Ingush the Caucasian type is preserved better than among any other North Caucasian nation", Professor of anthropology V.V. Bounak "Groznenski Rabochi" 5, VII, 1935. G.F. Debets recognized that Ingush Caucasian anthropologic type is the most Caucasian among Caucasians. Such theories of physical types are no longer considered valid.
In a 2000 article in Science Magazine, Bernice Wuethrich states that American linguist Johanna Nichols "has used language to connect modern people of the Caucasus region to the ancient farmers of the Fertile Crescent," and that her research suggests that "farmers of the region were proto-Nakh-Daghestanians". Nichols is quoted as stating that "The Nakh–Dagestanian languages are the closest thing we have to a direct continuation of the cultural and linguistic community that gave rise to Western civilization."

Genetics of Ingushetia's population

The Ingush have 89% of J2 Y-DNA, which is the highest known frequency in the world, and J2, closely associated with populations of the Fertile Crescent. Balanovsky's analysis included only tested 143 Ingush people
The mitochondrial DNA of the Ingush differs from that of other Caucasian populations. "The Caucasus populations exhibit, on average, less variability than other populations for the eight Alu insertion polymorphisms analyzed here. The average heterozygosity is less than that of any other region of the world, with the exception of Sahul. Within the Caucasus, the Ingush have much lower levels of variability than any of the other populations. The Ingush also showed unusual patterns of mtDNA variation when compared with other Caucasus populations, which indicates that some feature of the Ingush population history, or of this particular sample of the Ingush, must be responsible for their different patterns of genetic variation at both mtDNA and the Alu insertion loci." These findings suggested that the population had long been isolated.

History

Prehistory

;10.000 – 8000 BC: Migration of Nakh people to the slopes of the Caucasus from the Fertile Crescent. Invention of agriculture, irrigation, and the domestication of animals.
;6000 – 4000 BC: Neolithic era. Pottery is known to the region. Old settlements near Ali-Yurt and Magas, discovered in the modern times, revealed tools made out of stone: stone axes, polished stones, stone knives, stones with holes drilled in them, clay dishes etc. Settlements made out of clay bricks discovered in the plains. In the mountains, there were discovered settlements made out of stone surrounded by walls some of them dated back to 8000 BC.
;4000 – 3000 BC: Invention of the wheel, horseback riding, metal works dishes, armor, daggers, knives, arrow tips. The artifacts were found near Nasare-Cort, Muzhichi, Ja-E-Bortz, Abbey-Gove.
;900 AD – 1200 AD: The kingdom in the center of the Caucasus splits into Alania and Noble Alania. German scientist Peter Simon Pallas believed that Ingush people were the direct descendants from Alania.
;1239 AD: Destruction of the Alania capital of Maghas and Alan confederacy of the Northern Caucasian highlanders, nations, and tribes by Batu Khan "Magas was destroyed in the beginning of 1239 by the hordes of Batu Khan. Historically Magas was located at approximately the same place on which the new capital of Ingushetia is now built" – D.V.Zayats
;1300 AD – 1400 AD: War between the Alans, Tamerlan, Tokhtamysh, and the Battle of the Terek River. The Alan tribes build fortresses, castles, and defense walls locking the mountains from the invaders. Part of the lowland tribes occupied by Mongols. The insurgency against Mongols begins. "One map of the area during the Mongol period gives us a clue why there was not much written about the Vainakh— as the area of Chechnya-Ingushetia on that map is simply marked as ‘‘ungovernable.’’ This is not surprising, as the majority of armies moving north or south would be interested in passing through the mountains and getting to their ultimate destinations as quickly as possible— leaving the peoples between the two passes relatively unmolested.” – Schaefer, Robert W. “Insurgency in Chechnya and the North Caucasus: From Gazavat to Jihad” p. 51. In 1991 the Jordanian historian Abdul-Ghani Khassan presented the photocopy from old Arabic scripts claiming that Alania was in Chechnya and Ingushetia, and the document from Alanian historian Azdin Vazzar who claimed to be from Nokhcho tribe of Alania.
;1500 AD: Russian conquest of the Caucasus. 1558 Temryuk of Kabarda sends his emissaries to Moscow requesting help against Ingush tribes from Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible marries Temryuk's daughter Maria Temryukovna the Circassian tsaritsa. Alliance formed to gain the ground in the central Caucasus for the expanding Tsardom of Russia against stubborn Vainakh defenders.
;1700s: After several attempts to gain the access of strategic Darial Gorge, Russian forces lose the battle near village Angusht. Hence the tribe which lived in the village and the nation as a whole is nicknamed Ingush.

Caucasian wars

Russian historians claim that the Ingush volunteered to become a part of Russia. This conclusion is based mostly on the document signed on 13 June 1810, by General-Major Delpotso and representatives of 2 Ingush clans. Other clans resisted the Russian conquest. On June 29, 1832, Russian baron Rozen reported in letter No.42 to count Chernishev that "on the 23rd of this month I exterminated eight Ghalghai villages. On the 24th I exterminated nine more villages near Targim." By November 12, 1836 on the place of Ingush village of Zaur. Russian General Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov wrote in a letter to the Tsar of Russia, "It would be a grave mistake for Russia to alienate such a militaristic nation as the Ingush." He suggested the separation of the Ingush and Chechens in order for Russia to win the war in the Caucasus. In another letter from General Ermolov to Lanski on the impossibility of forceful Christianization of the Ingush, Yermolov wrote: "This nation, the most courageous and militaristic among all the highlanders, cannot be allowed to be alienated..." The last organized rebellion in Ingushetia occurred in 1858 when 5,000 Ingush started a fight but lost to superior Russian forces. The rebellion signaled the end of the First Russo-Caucasian War. In the same year, the Russian Tsar encouraged the emigration of Ingush and Chechens to Turkey and the Middle East by claiming that "Muslims need to live under Muslim rulers". It seems that he wanted to liberate the land for Ossetians and Cossacks. Some Ingush became exiled to deserted territory in the Middle East where many of them died. The remainder were assimilated. It was estimated that 80% of the Ingush left Ingushetia for the Middle East in 1865.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviets promised the Ingush that the villages and towns annexed during the colonization would be returned to the Ingush. Ingushetia becomes a major battleground between the old archenemies: general Denikin and Ingush resistance fighters. In his memoirs, general Denikin writes: "Ingush people are the least numerous, most welded, and strongly martial organization. They were, in essence, the supreme arbiter of the North Caucasus. The moral of the appearance was defined long ago in Russian text-books of geography, "the chief occupation – animal husbandry and robbery..." The last one of the two reached special art in the society. Political aspirations came from the same trend. The Ingush are mercenaries of the Soviet regime, they support it but don't let the spread of it in their province. At the same time, they tried to strike up relations with Turkey and sought the assistance from the Turks from Elisavetpol, and Germany – from Tiflis. In August, when the Cossacks and Ossetians captured Vladikavkaz, the Ingush intervened and saved the Soviet Board of Commissioners of Terek, but sacked the city and captured the state bank and mint. They robbed all the neighbors: the Cossacks and Ossetians in the name of “correcting historical errors” for a shortage of land, the Bolsheviks – in return for their services, Vladikavkaz citizens – for their helplessness, and the Kabardins – just out of habit. They were hated by everyone, and they did their “craft” in unison, well organized, in a big way, becoming the richest tribe in the Caucasus.”

Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus

On December 21, 1917 Ingushetia, Chechnya, and Dagestan declared independence from Russia and formed a single state called the "United Mountain Dwellers of the North Caucasus", which was recognized by Central Powers, Georgia, and Azerbaijan as an independent state. For example, Anna Zelkina writes that in May 1918 the first country to recognize independence was Turkey:
Later Germany and others followed the recognition. According to P. Kosok:
The capital of the new state was moved to Temir-Khan-Shura. The first prime minister of the state was elected Tapa Chermoyev, a Chechen prominent statesman; the second prime minister was Ingush statesman Vassan-Girey Dzhabagiev who also was the author of the Constitution of the land in 1917. In 1920 he was reelected for a third term. In 1921 Russians attacked and occupied the country and forcefully merged it with the Soviet state. The Caucasian war for independence continued and the government went into exile.

Soviet period

The Soviets confiscated the remaining Ingush properties by collectivization and dekulakization and unified Chechnya and Ingushetia into Chechen-Ingush ASSR.
During World War II Ingush youth were drafted into the Russian army. In August 1942, for three weeks, Nazi German forces captured half of the North Caucasus and were stopped only at two Ingush towns: Ordzhonikidze and Malgobek. The battle between Ingush and Germans intensified at Malgobek and the small town was captured and recaptured four times for another month until the Germans finally retreated. Stalin planned the expansion of the USSR in the south through Turkey. Muslim Chechens and Ingush could become a threat to the expansion. In February 1944 near the end of World War II, Russian Army and NKVD units flooded the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. The maneuvers were disguised as military exercises of the southern district.

Genocide of 1944

During the World War II, in 1942 German forces entered the North Caucasus. For three weeks Germans captured over half of the North Caucasus. They were only stopped at two Chechen-Ingush cities: Malgobek and Ordzhonikidze by resistance of natives of Chechen-Ingush ASSR. Russian propaganda portrayed Chechens and Ingush as "traitors". On 23 February 1944 Ingush and Chechens were falsely accused of collaborating with the Nazis operation code name Lentil starts and the entire Ingush and Chechen populations were deported to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Siberia on the orders of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin while the majority of their men were fighting on the front. The initial phase of the deportation was carried out on United States-supplied Studebaker trucks specifically modified with three submachine gun nest compartments above the deported to prevent escapes. American historian Norman Naimark writes: The deportees were gathered on the railroad stations and during the second phase transferred to the cattle railroad carts. Up to 30% of the population perished during the journey or in the first year of the exile. The Prague Watchdog claims that "in the early years of their exile about half of the Chechens and Ingush died from hunger, cold and disease". The deportation was classified by the European Parliament in 2004 as genocide. After the deportation Ingush resistance against Russia rises again. Those who escaped the deportation, shepherds who were high in the mountains during the deportation combine forces and form rebel groups which constantly attack Russian forces in Ingushetia. Major rebel groups were led by Akhmed Khuchbarov, Tsitskiev brothers, and Ingush woman-sniper Laisat Baisarova. The last one of the male Ingush rebels was killed in 1977 by the KGB officers, while the female sniper Laisat Baisarova was never captured or killed. American professor Johanna Nichols, who specializes in Chechen and Ingush philology, provided the theory behind the deportation:

After the return from Central Asia

After 13 years of exile, the Ingush were allowed to return to Chechen-Ingushetia. Most of Ingushetia's territory had been settled by Ossetians and part of the region had been transferred to North Ossetia. The returning Ingush faced considerable animosity from the Ossetians. The Ingush were forced to buy their homes back from the Ossetians and Russians. These hardships and injustices led to a peaceful Ingush protest in Grozny on 16 January 1973, which was crushed by the Soviet troops In 1989, the Ingush were officially rehabilitated along with other peoples that had been subjected to repressions.

Part of the Russian Federation, post-Soviet period

In 1991, when the Chechens declared independence from the Soviet Union to form the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the Ingush chose to secede from the Chechen-Ingush Republic. Thus, in 1992 the Ingush joined the newly created Russian Federation to try to resolve the conflict with Ossetia peacefully, also in the hope that the Russians would return their land as a token of their loyalty.

Ethnic cleansing of 1992

However, ethnic tensions in North Ossetia which were orchestrated by Ossetian nationalists, led to an outbreak of violence in the Ossetian–Ingush conflict in October–November 1992, when another ethnic cleansing of the Ingush population started. According to media reports, Ingush hostages were held in 1992 in Beslan high school gymnasium. The hostages were all kept in the same gymnasium, and deprived of food and water; at least one newborn, and several dozen male Ingush hostages were executed.. Over 60,000 Ingush civilians were forced from their homes in the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia. As a result of the conflict, pro-Russian general Ruslan Aushev, a decorated war hero from the War in Afghanistan, was appointed by the Russian government as the first president of Ingushetia to stop the spread of the conflict. Partial stability returned under his rule.

First and Second Chechen Wars

In 1994, when the First Chechen War started, the number of refugees in Ingushetia from both conflicts doubled. According to the UN, for every citizen of Ingushetia, one refugee arrived from Ossetia or Chechnya. This influx was very problematic for the economy, which collapsed after Aushev's success. The second Russo-Chechen war which started in 1999 brought more refugees and misery to Ingushetia. In 2001, Aushev was forced to leave his presidency and was succeeded by Murat Zyazikov, a former KGB general. The situation worsened under his rule. Many young Ingush men were abducted by Russian and Ossetian death squads. according to Human rights watchdogs Memorial and Mashr. The Ingush mountains are closed for Ingush nationals. The number of rebel attacks in Ingushetia rose, especially after the number of Russian security forces was tripled.
For example, according to a Russian news agency a murder of an ethnic-Russian school teacher in Ingushetia was committed by two ethnic-Russian and ethnic-Ossetian soldiers; Issa Merzhoev the Ingush Police detective who solved the crime was shot at and killed by "unknown" assailants shortly after he had identified the murderer.
At least four people were injured when a vehicle exploded on 24 March 2008. An upsurge in violence in these months targeted local police officers and security forces. In January 2008, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation launched a "counter-terrorism" operation in Ingushetia after receiving information that insurgents had been preparing a series of attacks.
In the beginning of August 2008, the war between Georgia and South Ossetia broke out, in which the Russian Federation subsequently became involved. After the outbreak of the war, there were virtually no more attacks or abductions of Ingush civilians by "unknown" forces. Most of the Russian forces were transferred to North and South Ossetia 31 August 2008 Magomed Yevloyev, the head of Ingush opposition and the owner of the website ingushetiya.ru, was killed by Russian security forces Shortly before the unrecognised opposition group People's Parliament of Ingushetia Mekhk-Kkhel called for the recognition of the Russian semi-autonomous republic's independence, opposition activist Magomed Khazbiyev proclaimed, "We must ask Europe or America to separate us from Russia."
On October 18, 2008, a Russian military convoy came under grenade attack and machine gun fire near Nazran. Official Russian reports of the ambush, which has been blamed on local Muslim separatists, said two soldiers were killed and at least seven injured. Reports from Ingush opposition sources suggested as many as forty to fifty Russian soldiers were killed.
On October 30, 2008, Zyazikov was dismissed from his office. On the next day, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was nominated by Dmitry Medvedev and approved as President by the People's Assembly of Ingushetia. This move was endorsed by major Russian political parties and by the Ingush opposition. Under the current rule of Yevkurov, Ingushetia seems much calmer, showing some semblance of the Russian government. Attacks on policemen have fallen by 40% and abductions by 80%.

Military history

According to professor Johanna Nichols, in all the recorded history and reconstructable prehistory, the Ingush people have never undertaken battle except in defense. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC Pharnavaz, his son Saurmag the Iberian kings, and the relatives of Ingush people per Leonti Mroveli, received military assistance from Ingush people in defense of Iberia against the Kartli occupation.
During World War I, 500 cavalrymen from an Ingush regiment of the Wild Division attacked the German Iron Division. The Russian Emperor Nicholas II, assessing the performance of the Ingush and Chechen regiments during the Brusilov breakthrough on the Russian-German front in 1915 wrote in a telegram to the Governor-General of the Tersky region Fleisher:
In 1941, when Germans attacked the USSR, the whole Russian front was retreating 40 km a day. Out of 6,500 defenders of Brest Fortress, 6,000 Soviet troops capitulated. 500 troops were fresh conscripts of Ingush and Chechen origin. Defenders held the fortress for over a month against the Germans and even managed to stage several attacks from the Fortress. The last defender's name has been unknown for a long time; his documents identified him as a man called Barkhanoyev. Decades later, official records revealed it was Umatgirei Barkhanoyev from the Ingush village of Yandare. Recently, the memoirs of Stankus Antanas, a Lithuanian national and former Waffen SS officer, were published in Ingushetia. He recalls that in July 1941, his regiment was ordered to "finish off" the remaining Soviet soldiers in the fortress. When the Nazis decided that no defenders had been left alive, an SS general lined up his soldiers on the parade ground to award them with decorations for capturing the fortress. Then, a Red Army officer came out from the fortress's underground bunker:
In 1994–96 Ingush volunteers fought alongside Chechens in the First Chechen War. Aside from a few incidents, Ingushetia was largely kept out of the war by a determined policy of non-violence pursued by President Ruslan Aushev.
This changed after the beginning of the Second Chechen War, and especially since Murat Zyazikov became the second Russian appointed president of Ingushetia in 2002. The first major rebel attack of the conflict, in which a military convoy was destroyed occurred in May 2000 and caused the deaths of 19 soldiers. In the June 2004 Nazran raid, Chechen and Ingush rebels attacked government buildings and military bases across Ingushetia, resulting in the deaths of at least 90 Ingush people and an unknown number of Russian troops. Among them the Republic's acting interior minister Abukar Kostoyev, his deputy Zyaudin Kotiyev. In response to a sharp escalation in attacks by insurgents since the summer of 2007, Moscow sent in an additional 25,000 MVD and FSB troops, tripling the number of special forces in Ingushetia.

Civil disorder

Population:
The Ingush, a nationality group indigenous to the Caucasus, mostly inhabit Ingushetia. They refer to themselves as Ghalghai and ghai. The Ingush speak the Ingush language, which has a very high degree of mutual intelligibility with neighboring Chechen.

Vital statistics

Average population Live birthsDeathsNatural changeCrude birth rate Crude death rate Natural change Total fertility rate
19952736,8891,867 5,02225.36.818.4
19962875,9801,958 4,02220.96.814.0
19972946,0551,957 4,09820.66.714.0
19982995,9292,064 3,86519.86.912.9
19993216,6241,953 4,67120.66.114.6
20003938,4632,117 6,34621.55.416.2
20014508,7531,875 6,87819.44.215.3
20024617,5781,874 5,70416.44.112.4
20034637,0591,785 5,27415.33.911.4
20044546,7941,751 5,04315.03.911.1
20054466,7771,821 4,95615.24.111.1
20064377,3911,830 5,56116.94.212.7
20074308,2841,625 6,65919.33.815.5
20084239,2151,561 7,65421.83.718.1
20094189,5721,877 7,69522.94.518.42.51
201041011,1781,857 9,32127.14.522.62.99
201142311,4081,705 9,70327.04.023.02.94
20124369,3501,595 7,75521.43.717.72.27
20134479,4981,568 7,93021.23.517.72.23
20144589,8581,586 8,27221.53.518.02.28
20154698,6741,557 7,11718.63.315.31.97
20164778,1431,555 6,58817.13.313.81.87
20174848,0001,554 6,44616.53.213.3
20184887,9171,548 6,36916.13.212.9
20194947,9771,465 6,51215.92.913.0

Note: Total fertility rate 2009, 2010, 2011 source:

Ethnic groups

According to the 2010 Russian Census, ethnic Ingush make up 94.1% of the republic's population. Other groups include Chechens, Russians, and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. Ingushetia has the lowest proportion of ethnic Russians of all federal subjects in Russia.

Religion

The Ingush are predominantly Shafi'i Madhhab of Sunni Islam with a Sufi minority, which is often associated with one of two traditional Sufi orders: the Sufi tariqa Naqshbandi, represented in Ingushetia by the brotherhood of Deni Arsanov, and the tariqa Qadiriyyah, associated with Kunta-Haji Kishiev.

Geography

Ingushetia is situated on the northern slopes of the Caucasus. Its area is reported by various sources as either or ; the difference in reporting is mainly due to the inclusion or exclusion of parts of Sunzhensky Districts. The republic borders North Ossetia–Alania, the Chechnya, and the country of Georgia . The highest point is the Gora Shan.
A stretch of the Caucasus Mountains runs through the territory of the republic.

Rivers

Major rivers include:
Ingushetia is rich in marble, timber, dolomite, plaster, limestone, gravel, granite, clay, thermal medical water, rare metals, mineral water, oil, and natural gas reserves.

Climate

Ingushetia's climate is mostly continental.
Up until the dissolution of the Soviet state, Ingushetia was part of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. In the late 1920s – early 1930s the Soviet officials were eager to enforce the Chechen-Ingush merger as an “objective” and “natural” process. The Soviet linguist Nikolay Yakovlev, who was a supporter of the merger, suggested that an inclusive name of "Veinakh" had to be used for both the Chechens and Ingush. According to his views, the rapid urbanization and rapprochement of the Chechens and Ingush within one and the same republic might encourage the formation of a common culture and language and the establishment of a unified “Veinakh” people.
During the late 80s, together with the separatist tendencies across the Soviet Union, the Second Congress of the Ingush People was held in Grozny on September 9–10, 1989. The gathering was directed at the top leadership of the Soviet Union, and included a request to "restore the Ingush people’s autonomy within their historical borders, the Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic with a capital in the right-bank part of the city of Ordzhonikidze".The Ingush Republic was to be organized out of six traditional Ingush districts. The rise of the Russian Federation gave the Ingushetians the independence they vowed for. During the 1990s, Ingushetia was ruled by its elected president Ruslan Aushev, a former Soviet general and hero of the war in Afghanistan.
The head of government and the highest executive post in Ingushetia is the Head.
Recent heads:
Recent Chairmen of the Government:
The parliament of the Republic is the People's Assembly, composed of 34 deputies elected for a four-year term. The People's Assembly is headed by the Chairman. As of 2006, the Chairman of the People's Assembly is Makhmud Sultanovich Sakalov.
The Constitution of Ingushetia was adopted on February 27, 1994.
Ingushetia is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
The capital was moved from Nazran to Magas in December 2002.
The most recent election was held in 2013.

Economy

There are some natural resources in Ingushetia: mineral water in Achaluki, oil and natural gas in Malgobek, forests in Dzheirakh, metals in Galashki. The local government is considering the development of tourism; however, this is problematic due to the uneasy situation in the republic itself and the proximity of some conflict zones. However, Ingushetia continues to remain as one of Russia's poorest republics, largely due to the ongoing conflict, corruption and civil disorders. Unemployment is estimated to be around 53%, and growing poverty is a major issue.

Education

, the first institute of higher education in the history of Ingushetia, was founded in 1994 in Ordzhonikidzevskaya.

Notable people