<P> During the Russian Civil War, Chechens and other Caucasian nations lived in independence for a few years before being Sovietized in 1921 . During the Second World War, the Chechens saw the German invasion as an opportunity to revolt against the Soviet regime . In response, they were deported en masse to Central Asia where they were forced to stay until 1957 . </P> <P> The most recent conflict between Chechen and the Russian government took place in the 1990s . As the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Chechen separatists declared independence in 1991 . By late 1994 the First Chechen War broke out and after two years of fighting the Russian forces withdrew from the region . In 1999, the fighting restarted and concluded the next year with the Russian security forces establishing control over Chechnya . </P> <P> The North Caucasus, a mountainous region that includes Chechnya, spans or lies close to important trade and communication routes between Russia and the Middle East, control of which have been fought over by various powers for millennia . Russia's entry into the region followed Tsar Ivan the Terrible's conquest of the Golden Horde's Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan in 1556, initiating a long struggle for control of the North Caucasus routes with other contemporary powers including Persia, the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate . Internal divisions prevented Russia from effectively projecting its power into the region until the 18th century; however, Russian - allied Cossacks began settling the North Caucasus lowlands following Ivan's conquests, sparking tensions and occasional clashes with Chechens, who at this time were themselves increasingly settling the lowlands due to adverse climatic changes in their traditional mountain strongholds . </P> <P> In 1774, Russia gained control of Ossetia, and with it the strategically important Darial Pass, from the Ottomans . A few years later, in 1783, Russia signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with Georgia, making Georgia--a Christian enclave surrounded by hostile Muslim states--a Russian protectorate . To fulfill her obligations under the treaty, Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, began construction of the Georgian Military Road through the Darial Pass, along with a series of military forts to protect the route . These activities, however, antagonized the Chechens, who saw the forts both as an encroachment on the traditional territories of the mountaineers and as a potential threat . </P>

Where is chechnya and why is it important to russia