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THE CHECHEN STRUGGLE: Independence Won and Lost, Ilyas Akhmadov and Miriam Lanskoy, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2010, 270 pages, $35.00.
Since 1994, Russian military offi - cers have published their accounts of the fighting in Chechnya and journalists have offered insights from Russian and Chechen points of view. The Chechen Struggle: Independence Won And Lost by Ilyas Akhmadov (a Chechen who fought against the Russians and later served as Chechnya's Foreign Minister) and Miriam Lanskoy (an expert in Russian affairs) provides an entirely different viewpoint of the conflict. Akhmadov was a Chechen combatant who also worked with Chechnya's top leaders. Because Chechnya's entire early rebel leadership has been eliminated, Akhmadov is the sole contributor to provide insight into the planning and intrigues of the Chechens.
The Chechen Struggle is structured around four issues: the fi ghting that occurred during the...