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Grozny is located in the Chechen Republic.
The city was badly damaged as a result of two Chechen wars and was
thoroughly destroyed. It is all the more interesting to see Grozny
not only restored in an unprecedented time, but also received in
recent years the modern look of the city center, which, however, has
not yet been completed.
Subject to certain prudence and
rules, the city is completely safe, and it is likely that Grozny
will soon become a popular destination for domestic exotic tourism
based on the ethnographic and religious component with visits to the
natural beauties of Chechnya.
Chechens are one of the most
hospitable peoples of the North Caucasus, and simple communication
will give the traveler a certain pleasure.
Orientation
The Sunzha River crosses the city from the southwest
to the northeast. The city center is concentrated at the intersection of
Sunzha with V.V. Putin and Akhmat Kadyrov. Here is the mosque "Heart of
Chechnya", the skyscrapers of Grozny City and the residence of the
President of Chechnya, the city square with the building of the city
administration. Prospekt V.V. Putin up to the Friendship of Peoples
Square and rests on the complex of buildings of the Government of the
Republic. In the opposite direction, Putin Avenue continues A. Kadyrov
Avenue, which is more or less interesting up to the famous Minutka
Square. In the area of one or two blocks around the main thoroughfares
of the city, the main tourist sites are concentrated.
Sheikh Ali
Mitaev Boulevard leads to the northern part of the city from the center,
which passes into Abuzar Aydamirov Avenue. The avenue in the north near
the suburbs rests on the airport. The southern part of the city is cut
off by the railway, behind which, in general, travelers have nothing to
do.
Also, for orientation, important objects are several bus
stations scattered in the city and named for parts of the world, as well
as the central transport hub near the Berkat shopping center.
Travelers should keep in mind that many streets have recently been
renamed, and at best they can have a double name.
There are almost no historical objects left in the city, there are
several pre-revolutionary buildings and Soviet monuments. All other
objects of interest for inspection were created over the past decade.
central square
Mosque named after Akhmat Kadyrov "Heart of
Chechnya", V.V. Putin. The main symbol of the city of Grozny, the
largest mosque in Russia. Built between 2006 and 2008.
Prospect
V.V. Putin
The main street of the city itself is a landmark, and even
more so with such a name. From Friday evening to Sunday, the avenue is
blocked and becomes a large pedestrian zone. Visiting motorists should
be careful, parking here is difficult.
Bar house.
Akhmat
Kadyrov Avenue
Grozny-city.
Church of Michael the Archangel.
Minutka Square.
Outskirts
The building of the oil institute.
Abandoned building in the Gothic style built in 1928
National Museum of the Czech Republic, Putin Avenue, 1b. ☎ 8 (8712)
29-50-24. The museum is open from 10.00 to 17.30; break: 13:00 to 14:00;
Thursday: from 12.00 to 20.00; day off - Monday; sanitary day - the
third Friday, monthly. The National Museum of the Czech Republic,
located in a remarkable building with stylized teip towers around the
perimeter, is a complex museum. It was established on October 16, 1996
on the basis of the Chechen State United Museum (founded in 1924) and
the Chechen Republican Museum of Fine Arts. P.Z. Zakharova (founded in
1961).
Chechen Drama Theatre. H. Nuradilova.
In 1801-1810, Georgia became part of Russia, in 1803-1813 - Eastern
Transcaucasia (according to the Gulistan Peace). But these lands were
separated from the main territory of Russia by the Caucasus Mountains,
inhabited by warlike mountain peoples, who raided the lands that
recognized the authority of Russia and interfered with relations with
Transcaucasia.
After the end of the wars in Europe against
Napoleonic France, the government of Alexander I was able to intensify
its actions in the Caucasus, concentrating significant military
resources there. In 1816, General Alexei Yermolov was appointed
commander of the Separate Georgian Corps and manager of the civilian
unit in Georgia, Astrakhan and the Caucasus provinces. He proposed a
plan for the conquest of the mountainous Caucasus, which provided for
the abandonment of the tactics of punitive expeditions in favor of a
regular siege of mountainous areas by cutting wide clearings in the
forests, laying roads and creating defensive lines from outposts and
fortresses. Hostile auls were to be destroyed, burned to the ground, and
the population was to be relocated to the plain under the supervision of
Russian troops.
There were two centers of resistance in the
Caucasus: in the east of the Georgian Military Highway - Chechnya and
Mountainous Dagestan, in the west - Abkhazians and Circassians. In the
center of the Caucasus Mountains, peoples loyal to Russia lived -
Ossetians and Ingush. On the territory of today's Grozny, there were up
to 20 Chechen villages and farms, which were destroyed by the troops of
General Yermolov.
In 1817, Yermolov began to advance the left
flank of the Caucasian Line to the south - from the Terek River to the
Sunzha, forming the Sunzha Line. In October 1817, the Nazran redoubt,
built back in 1809 near the Ingush villages, was strengthened, and the
fortification of Barrier Stan was laid in the middle reaches of the
Sunzha. In 1818, the Groznaya fortress was founded in the lower reaches
of the Sunzha. The fortresses of Vnezapnaya (1819) and Burnaya (1821)
became a continuation of the Sunzha fortified line.
Fortress
The Groznaya fortress was founded on June 22, 1818. The chosen place was
6 versts from the entrance to the Khankala gorge (Khan-Kale tract) - a
gorge between two low ridges, which was considered impregnable. The
fortress was designed to block the Chechen highlanders from entering the
plain through the Khankala Gorge.
Five thousand Russian soldiers
erected a fortress in 4 months. This place was then considered the most
"hot" point in the North Caucasus, and therefore the fortress was called
Grozny. The fortress was a regular hexagon, surrounded by a moat 20
meters wide. Each corner of the hexagon was a bastion on which the
cannons stood.
Already by 1825, a suburb was formed near the
fortress, which, however, was poorly protected. In July 1825, an
uprising broke out in Chechnya. The highlanders, led by Bei-Bulat,
captured the post of Amaradzhiyurt (Ammir-Adzha-Yurt), tried to take the
fortresses of Gerzel and Groznaya. However, in 1826 the Bey-Bulat
uprising was crushed.
The fortress was visited by Russian poets
Alexander Griboedov, Alexander Polezhaev, Mikhail Lermontov, the classic
of Russian literature Leo Tolstoy, the Decembrist and writer A. A.
Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and other famous figures of Russian culture.
In October 1850, the heir to the Russian throne, 32-year-old Alexander
Nikolayevich, visited the fortress. In honor of his arrival, the
Alexander Gates were built in the fortress. After the October
Revolution, they were renamed the "Red Gate", and in 1932 they were
demolished during the laying of the tram line.
With the end of
hostilities in Chechnya in 1859, the governor of the Caucasus, Alexander
Baryatinsky, ordered the organization of two fairs in Grozny since 1860
- spring and autumn. In 1860, by decree of Emperor Alexander II, the
Terek region was formed. A "military-people's administration" was
created in the region, which was characterized by a separate system of
administration for civil, Cossack and mountain administration.
City
On December 30, 1869, the Groznaya fortress, which had already
lost its strategic importance, was transformed into a district town of
the Terek region.
As of 1883, there were 6 religious institutions
in Grozny, 1 mosque, 3 churches - Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic, 2
synagogues.
In the early 1890s, commercial oil production began
in the area of the city. At the same time, the need arose to build a
railway. The branch of the Vladikavkaz railway, laid from Beslan to
Grozny, was completed by May 1, 1893, and on October 6 of the same year
the first oil well was drilled.
The founder of the Nobel Prize,
Alfred Nobel, took part in the development of the oil industry in the
city of Grozny.
Grozny became one of the largest industrial
centers of the Caucasus.
Revolution and years of civil war
After the victory of the February Revolution in March 1917, the Civil
Committee was created in Grozny - an organ of the Provisional
Government, the Grozny Council of Workers, Soldiers and Cossack Deputies
was formed, the Chechen Congress was held, at which the "Chechen
National Council" was elected.
On November 8, 1917, Soviet power
was established.
In December 1917, the Chechen Soviet, headed by
Tapa Chermoev, delivered an ultimatum to the Grozny Soviet of Workers'
Deputies demanding that the workers and revolutionary soldiers be
disarmed. After that, the Chechen units of the "Wild Division" captured
the city. The Provisional Terek-Dagestan government was formed.
In January 1918, the troops of the Red Army, who arrived from Mozdok,
captured Grozny. Power passed into the hands of the Military
Revolutionary Committee.
On April 2, 1918, the troops of the
Caucasian Volunteer Army of General P.N. Wrangel entered the city.
From August to November 1918, the so-called "hundred-day battles"
took place in the city. August 11, 1918 troops of the Terek Cossacks
numbering up to 12 thousand people. under the command of Georgy
Bicherakhov, they attempted to capture Grozny, which was the center of
Soviet power in the Terek region. The Bolsheviks gathered a detachment
of three thousand people, led by the commander of the city garrison,
Nikolai Gikalo. On November 12, 1918, the siege of Grozny, which lasted
more than three months, was lifted with a simultaneous attack by the
besieged from the city and the Red Cossacks of Alexander Dyakov.
In 1920, units of the 11th Red Army seized power in Grozny. Chechnya and
Ingushetia were included in the Mountain ASSR.
During the civil
war in 1919, the writer Mikhail Bulgakov visited Grozny several times,
taking part in the hostilities on the side of the VSYUR units.
USSR
At the end of 1920 and the beginning of 1921, two new Soviet
autonomies were organized in the foothill and mountainous regions of the
North Caucasus with a predominantly non-Russian population - the
Dagestan ASSR and the Mountain ASSR. At the same time, the Gorskaya ASSR
was divided into 7 national districts, one of which was the Chechen
national district. The city of Grozny became its center.
In
November 1922, the Chechen National Okrug was separated from the
Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and transformed into the
Chechen Autonomous Region. Grozny, however, was not part of the region
and had the status of an autonomous city.
In 1926-1928, according
to the project of the architect K. A. Dulin, water supply was arranged
in Grozny.
On April 1, 1929, the city of Grozny, which had the
status of an autonomous city within the North Caucasus Territory, was
included in the Chechen Autonomous Okrug by a decree of the All-Russian
Central Executive Committee.
Since January 15, 1934, after the
unification of the Chechen and Ingush Autonomous Regions, Grozny has
been the center of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Region, since December
5, 1936, the capital of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist
Republic.
In the summer of 1942, two army groups, A and B, were
formed from the German Army Group South. Army Group "A" was tasked with
capturing the Grozny and Baku oil-bearing regions, and then capturing
the oil fields of Iran and Iraq. Army Group "B" was aimed at Stalingrad.
The failed offensive of the troops of the Southwestern Front from the
Barvenkovsky ledge to Kharkov led to its defeat and to grave
consequences in the south of the country. On July 23, 1942, German
troops broke through the front near Rostov-on-Don. Within a month, the
Germans captured the Kuban. At the end of August 1942, the Wehrmacht
troops occupied Prokhladny, Nalchik, and Mozdok. On September 3, 1942,
Kleist gave the order to the Mozdok grouping to attack Ordzhonikidze,
and along the Cool-Grozny railway line - to Grozny. However, the German
troops failed to achieve the final goal set by Kleist - fierce battles
unfolded near Malgobek and Ordzhonikidze. Wehrmacht troops made several
attempts to break through the front in September, but were stopped and
exhausted, and in October they themselves went on the defensive. On
January 1, 1943, Soviet troops went on the offensive - the liberation of
the North Caucasus from the Nazi invaders began.
When the Germans
realized that they would not be able to take Grozny, on October 10-15,
1942, they bombed the Grozny oil fields, oil storage facilities and oil
refineries - the oil fields were burning, the Sunzha was burning from
the oil spilled into it. The fires were extinguished within a few days.
In the shortest possible time, oilmen and power engineers restored the
working capacity of industrial facilities - Grozny again began to supply
the oil products necessary for the front and rear. In memory of the feat
of the Grozny firefighters in those days, a monument was erected in the
Sheikh-Mansurovsky district of the city (in front of the fire station)
after the war.
On March 7, 1944, in connection with the
deportation of Chechens and Ingush, the city became the center of the
Grozny district as part of the Stavropol Territory, but already on March
22, 1944 it again received the status of the center of a separate region
- the Grozny region, and from January 9, 1957, after the rehabilitation
of Chechens and Ingush, the capital of the recreated CHIASSR.
According to the first American plan for an atomic war against the USSR
(“Plan Totality”), Grozny was one of 20 target cities for an atomic bomb
strike.
Mass riots in 1958
The mass return of Chechens and
Ingush, which did not have proper organizational support and was
sabotaged by the local authorities, led to tensions, quarrels, scandals
and fights, and an increase in crime. In 1958, mass riots took place in
Grozny, which lasted several days. The reason for them was the murder of
a Russian guy, which occurred against the backdrop of escalated ethnic
tension. The incident was used by chauvinistically minded
representatives of the local party leadership and special services, who
sought to disrupt the process of restoring autonomy. The mass (up to 10
thousand people) anti-Chechen demonstration and rally in the center of
Grozny turned into a Chechen pogrom and into an anti-Soviet speech. In
its course, some party and state buildings, as well as the post office
and railway station, were captured.
The leadership of the local
branch of the KGB, headed by Shmoylov, spread rumors about the revenge
of the Chechens and stopped the attempts of the troops and police to
calm the crowd. Some senior party workers and members of their families
were seen among the demonstrators. Party and Soviet functionaries who
tried to stop the protesters were forced to stand guard of honor at the
coffin of the deceased. The demands of the protesters consisted in the
immediate re-deportation of Chechens and Ingush, the restoration of the
Grozny region and the introduction of severe restrictions (no more than
10%) on the settlement of highlanders in it.
On the night of
August 28, the rally was dispersed by the forces of military units, its
participants were later arrested and imprisoned.
Rally in Grozny
(1973)
In January 1973, an Ingush rally was held in Grozny demanding
the territorial rehabilitation of the Ingush people. Three days later,
the rally was dispersed by troops using water cannons.
After the
collapse of the USSR
On October 1, 1991, the National Congress of the
Chechen People, led by Dzhokhar Dudayev, announced the division of
Checheno-Ingushetia into the sovereign Chechen Republic (the capital is
Grozny) and the Ingush Republic within the RSFSR.
During the
First Chechen War, fighting took place around the building of the former
Republican Committee of the Communist Party ("Presidential Palace") in
Grozny, January 1995. At the end of 1994 and at the end of 1999, the
city was taken by storm by the armed forces of the Russian Federation,
in August 1996 - by the combined forces of the Chechen Republic of
Ichkeria. During all these events, the city suffered in the strongest
way - it was practically destroyed; including the complete destruction
of the central district of the city.
By plane
Grozny Airport (IATA: GRV, ICAO: URMG). ✉ ☎ +7 (8712)
22-41-90. The civil airport of the Chechen Republic is located on the
northern outskirts of Grozny. Grozny Airport receives several daily
flights from Moscow (Vnukovo - UTAir and Domodedovo - Saratov Airlines),
infrequent international flights can be reached from Istanbul and
Bishkek. The airport is a classic Soviet two-story "glass", with a
minimum level of repair and equipment. On the first floor there are a
couple of stall-type cafes, and one larger cafe, on the second floor
there are several stalls with souvenirs of a poor assortment and
impressive prices. At the airport, a more attentive (compared to the
usual) screening is carried out. The departure hall is one and small,
also with a minimum set of services. There is a hotel in the complex, a
mosque was built opposite the airport terminal. Abuzar Aydamirov Avenue
(former B. Khmelnitsky) leads from the avenue to the city center. The
easiest way to get to the city is by taxi; when calling a car, the
payment will be no more than 200-300 rubles, depending on the
destination. There are also two city buses: No. 19 to the railway
station and No. 111 to the western bus station.
Grozny residents also
actively use the Magas airport in neighboring Ingushetia - ticket prices
there are noticeably lower, incl. due to Pobeda flights. However, there
is no direct public transport to this airport from Grozny. By car, the
distance from the airport to the center of Grozny will be about 60 km or
less than an hour on the way.
By train
Train Station.
By bus
Western bus station. long distance bus trips
South Bus
Station (Minute).
Bus station Berkat. Mostly commuter flights within
Chechnya
Minibuses, fare 25 rubles. (2021). Bus stops often (including in the very center) do not distinguish themselves in any way on the ground, up to the absence of an appropriate pocket or road sign - in these cases, trust the locals, or, oddly enough, online maps.
TSUM.
Shopping and entertainment center "Grozny City", Muhammad
Ali Avenue, 2A (Kirova st., 2) (How to get there: shuttle bus No. 28,
31a, 31b, to the stop "SEC Grozny City".). ☎ +7 (8712) 29-60-01.
10.00–22.00. The Grozny City shopping and entertainment center occupies
an area of more than six hectares. On the territory of the complex with
an area of more than 24 thousand square meters. meters, in addition to
shops, there are two ice halls, five cinemas, two swimming pools, office
and retail premises, two prayer rooms for men and women, a recreation
area for children, attractions, a greenhouse, a restaurant and five
cafeterias. The territory of the complex is decorated with colored
fountains and artificial waterfalls.
Berkat market.
Coffee houses
1 StarCoffee.
2 Kofetun.
Expensive
3
Zhizhig & Galnash, 5 Putin Ave. Restaurant of national Vainakh cuisine
4 Blackstar Burger, Putin Ave, 5
5 Restaurant Assa.
The sale of alcohol in public places and small shops is prohibited.
The exception is large stores, such as Lenta. So travelers have to be
content with tea and coffee.
It can be quite noisy on the streets
at night - roaring cars without a silencer or jigits with loud music. It
is possible that shooting will be heard somewhere, and in the early
morning the calls of muezzins will sound from the loudspeakers on the
minarets.
Expensive
Hotel "Continent", Aydamirova Ave., 190. ✉ ☎
+7(928)003-30-30. 3000-5000r. Newly built hotel, located outside the
center, in the northern part of the city. Despite the remoteness, it is
popular, especially among car travelers. Two buildings, a good cafe,
open until 22-23 hours, there is also a supermarket in the main
building. There is Wi-Fi. Despite the fact that the site has a booking
module, it is better to book through booking.com
Hotel Grozny City.
6000-7000 rubles for a standard single room.
During the daytime, the city is completely safe, at night it is
better to stay in the city center. In the center of the city, traffic
police or policemen are on duty at almost every intersection, which in
themselves are remarkable with local flavor (bearded Muslim policemen,
pay attention to the manner of carrying weapons). There are fewer police
officers on the outskirts, nevertheless they are on duty and are clearly
patrolling the streets.
Visitors should adhere to local, fairly
strict and pronounced Muslim rules of conduct. Observe a certain
restraint towards the female sex and courtesy with everyone. That
however does not deny simple human emotions.
Crossing the road
even at a pedestrian crossing should be done carefully; when a
pedestrian passes, it is customary for drivers to turn on the emergency
gang.
The city is strikingly clean, while there are practically
no trash cans and bins. You should not throw garbage anywhere, you can
earn a silent censure or an open remark from the locals.
Discussion of the war or the current situation with the locals is
possible in restrained tones, but do not expect frankness, you will be
made to understand about crossing the permissible boundaries with
silence or evasive answers.