Chechenia (Russia)

C^ec^na^, Ic^keria^

Last modified: 2000-01-14 by antonio martins
Keywords: chechnya | chechenia | russia | gray wolves | separatist | chechnya | crescent and star | ichkeria | wolf |
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• Presentation of Chechenia
• Status and description of the flag
• Governement of National Renovation of Chechnya
• Variants of the State Flag
• Grey Wolves

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• Chechen Republic Online

(Note: You need an appropriate font to correctely view the cyrillic text on this page. See here transliteration details).

Name
    (english): Chechenia
    (russian, short form): ×å÷íÿ | C^ec^na^
    (russian, long form): ×å÷åíñêàÿ Ðåñïóáëèêà | C^ec^enskaa^ Respublika
    (local, short form): È÷êåðèÿ | Ic^keria^
Local official language: Chechen
Capital (russian): Ãðîçíûé | Groznyi~ (english): Groznyy
Area: 15 000 km² (5 800 sq.mi.)
Population: 813 200 inhabitants in 1993
Status: Republic (Ðåñïóáëèêà | Respublika) within the Russian Federation
Economic region: North Caucasus
License plate code: 20
Ham radio code: CC (but DX contest code: CN)
ISO 3166-2 code: CE
Flag adopted in 1991.11.01
Coat of arms adopted in 1990.11.23

Disputed Status: Legally, a constituent republic of the Russian Federation. A self-proclaimed independent state was independent for three years until invaded and largely over-run by Russian forces in 1994-5.
Stuart Notholt, 1995

Chechnya declared autonomous on 27 November 1990, had adopted the National flag on 23 November 1990 with stripes of red-white-red. Proclamation of Republic was on 27 October 1991, and on 1 November 1991 the new national flag with corrected stripes (W-R-W) was adopted; flag and arms were officially introduced on 9 November 1991. The stripes are equal in width. The flag is not dark green, but green, several shades are (were) in use. The badge is only on the avers. A version without badge is also used (civic flag?). The stars get smaller from the center outwards, the top point of each star points to the center of the badge, the stars are silver. The proportions were never 1:2 but different from that. If 3:5, 5:8 or 7:11 cannot be said certainly, but it is around that. As far as we know the proportions have not been fixed, and so we published a pic in Flaggenforum (No.5, January 1992) [flf] based on large pictures we have on video recordings. The resulting proportions were ca. 48:80. In that publication we misinterpreted the moon (assuming it was a sun, but in fact it is a moon). Our informations about the first flag came directly from Alexander Bassov in Kiew, a vexillologist generally quite reliable.
Ralf Stelter, Jun 1999

By virtue of the recent conflict, the Chechen flag, which is dark green in proportions 1:2 with three stripes of white-red-white at the base, is relatively well known. It remains to be seen whether this will continue to be used by any future Russian-sponsored Chechen government.
Stuart Notholt, 1995

The Flag Bulletin (Sep-Oct 1992, no. 148) [tfb] reported this flag as «state flag».
David Lewellen

In addition, the flag on the chart Flags of Aspirant Peoples [asp] appears to be wrong, in so far as the white stripes are same width as the red stripe when they should be 1/2 of that width.
William Grimes-Wyatt, 22 Jan 1996

This flag has dark-green background. At bottom part of flag - 3 thin stripes (like a flag of Ichkeria, but in mirror order): red/white/red. At upper left corner — white crescent and star. It's the flag of Governement of National Renovation of Chechnya (not Chechen Republic Ichkeria!) created on December 26, 1994, headed by prof. Salambek Hadzhiev (now — bussinesman, oil, Moscow), later by Doku Zavgayev (now — Ambassador of Russia in Tanzania). After Declaration of peace between Moscow and Grozny this governement was disbanded. Curiosly, federal soldiers during Chechen war saw never difference between flags of separatists and pro-russians chechens. I have hear they used both of them as foot-carpet in their barracks.
Andrey Jashlavwskij, 19 Jan 1999

There are several variants of the state flag reported, mainly differing in the circular symbol, especially in colouring of it. Flags without the symbol are also reported to be in use. Variations in width of the white stripes, and even flags without them are reported, but they seem to be erroneous.
(anon.)

On the TV news tonight (19/1/96) was some footage relating to the end of the hijacking of the Turkish Black Sea ferry by supporters of the Chechen separatists. One shot showed supporters of the hijackers on the shore. They were waving Chechen flags and also red flags which resembled the Turkish flag except that they had three stars (in a triangular pattern, I think) instead of one.
Stuart Notholt, 19 Jan 1996

I think there is (was?) a militant Turkish organization called The Gray Wolves with a nationalistic Moslem agenda. I'm not sure if they're still active.
Greg Duda, 20 Jan 1996

The Chechenya mailing list had a post concerning a flag sent from Chechenya to some chechenyans in Jordon. It contained a gray wolf, said to be a symbol of Chechnians, whose national anthem refers to their birth with the birth of the wolves. The use of this new flag may be due to this symbolism or due to the fact that the previous one is too similar to that of many other groups using same pattern with different colors.
William Grimes-Wyatt, 22 Jan 1996

An article in NYTimes (Nov 1,96) concerning the situation in Chechnya states, «Officials in Moscow discuss the future of the region with great intensity, always saying that Chechnya must never be independent. But for the Chechens, that kind of talk means nothing any more: The traditional green Chechen flag of the lone wolf flies over every battle-scared town hall in the shattered republic.» Now, I have seen Chechen flags of green with the white-red-white stripes near the botom; and blue-disc with white outline, containing either and seated lamb and stars above it; the other version in the blue disc had an horizontally displayed infinity symbol of sorts, with stars above it. I also know of the lone wolf as used on Gaugauzia's flag, although the colors there are light blue field with a white disc in the center and upon this disc a silhouette in yellow/green of a left-facing wolf's head.
Steve Stringfellow, 01 Nov 1996

I believe that the symbol in the circle of Chechen flag is referred to as the grey (or white?) wolf, in any case a wolf, not a lamb nor anything else. If it is so, the description in the article might have been correct, assuming that journalist described only the most prominent elements of the flag (as someone told him, I guess) not a flag that he had seen. I would also read his sentence as 'the lone wolf flag' being the name or nick name of the flag, or maybe describing just the most important (at the time) element of the flag, and assuming that other elements are well known.
Zeljko Heimer, 02 Nov 1996