ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MOSCOW
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: CHRIS BIRD
THE CHECHEN LEADER, who was killed last week by a missile, was trained as a Russian soldier but fought with the zeal of Islam.
Dzhokhar Dudayev led Chechnya's drive for independence from Russia, wrapping himself in the mantle of Islamic warrior-prophets. They fought the czars; he fought their successors.
From his infancy in exile in Central Asia to his reported death by a Russian missile, Dudayev's life was shaped - and eventually destroyed - by his relation to Russian power.
Dudayev was born in 1944, the year that Josef Stalin deported Chechens en masse in freezing cattle trucks to Central Asia for alleged collaboration with Nazi Germany. Hundreds of thousands of Chechens died, including Dudayev's father and older brother.
``Russian history is one of barbarism, stealing and killing, especially here,'' Dudayev said recently. Chechens ``wear this history in our genes.''
Despite that history, Dudayev spent most of his life in the uniforms of the Soviet state. He had a successful military career, rising to the rank of general in the Soviet air force and gaining command of a strategic bomber force in Estonia - a remarkable achievement considering Russian discrimination against Chechens.
But he displayed anti-Russian leanings as early as 1989, allowing Estonian nationalists to run up their flag at the air base he commanded in Soviet Estonia.
He shot to fame in 1991 when, as the elected Chechen president in a vote Russian officials claim was fraudulent, he declared Chechnya's independence.
As post-Soviet Chechnya's vigorous trade in arms and narcotics took off, Dudayev's notoriety grew - this time as leader of what the Kremlin called a ``gangster state.'' His predilection for wide lapels and fedoras and his coterie of heavily armed bodyguards promoted his outlaw image.
His standoff with Russia turned violent in 1994 when Russian troops moved into Chechnya to crush his rebellion. In the ensuing months, as Russian troops slowly gained control of the capital and forced Dudayev to take refuge in the mountains, the rebel adopted an increasingly religious tone.
Recalling his 19th-century forebears, warrior-prophets like Imam Shamil who led a decades-long holy war against czarist Russia, Dudayev regularly fulminated against ``satanic forces'' in the Kremlin.
``We have turned away from the Western democracies, and we look to Islamic virtues,'' Dudayev said.
While many Chechens grew tired of the war and its devastation, Dudayev refused any peace initiatives that threatened his position and constantly questioned the loyalty of his rebel lieutenants.
Prepared to continue the secessionist war despite the Russians' scorched-earth policy, he followed a Shamil maxim to the letter - ``Weakness and cowardice never saved anyone.''
In a clandestine interview just five weeks before his reported death, Russia's most famous fugitive appeared calm and in good health despite his lengthy war with the Kremlin.
The thin, wiry rebel leader wore crisp, clean combat fatigues and a forage cap. A dagger and pistol hung from his polished brown belt. His thick, dark hair was slicked back and his trademark mustache was trimmed to a pencil-thin line.
``I've already lost count of the attempts on my life,'' he said.
Dudayev told reporters his arch-foe, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, had ordered his assassination.
He listed his near-brushes with death: a shell through the window of a house he was staying in; a temporary office hit with a clutch of grenades; a shell that landed four yards from his car.
But Dudayev, who turned 52 last week, appeared to enjoy giving Russia's intelligence services the runaround.
Leaders of the previous century's holy wars in Chechnya such as Shamil were captured and ended their days in exile from their homeland.
And although Dudayev claimed their legacy, his fate was different. The Russian missile that struck last Sunday ensured that the fugitive would forever elude capture.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB