u/GerryAdamsSFOfficial

Despite immense pressure and a huge asymmetry of resources, organized insurgencies can grumble on for an extremely long time. Philippine communists for decades, the IRA for 30+ years, FARC, Mao. But then, some of the time, insurgency just fizzles into nothing.

Like the Chechen wars of the 1990s and 2000s. Working from first principles, you'd probably expect it to turn into a forever war. It just didn't.

Many insurgencies lasted longer and were able to inflict a higher level of violence and stay more coherent. In comparison to other conflicts, it's odd that Chechen paramilitary activity was not much more lasting.

• It had deep stockpiles of modern military equipment, beyond the wildest dreams of most insurgents

• It had multiple causus bellis - secular independence, religious freedom, anti-colonialism that might have given it broad political appeal

• It was surrounded on multiple sides by hard, mountainous terrain ideal for smuggling or concealment, as well as a porous land border with the occupier

• Chechnya won the first Chechen war against Russia, meaning the possibility of succeeding was not utterly unreasonable

• It was full of men with existing military experience at all levels of command in formal military institutions

• They were mad. Chechens have a deep, centuries long and extremely violent ethnic grudge against Russia. Due to serious atrocities including being repeatedly massacred for centuries, including flattening the capital in the 1990s, it's hard to not believe they were greatly polarized.

• It was culturally, religiously and ethnically distinct from its occupier.

So what gives? Why was the problem relatively "solved" so quickly?