Chechnya

Re “Chechnya: A Fitting Reply to Fragmentation?,” Opinion, Jan. 22:

Charles A. Kupchan in his analysis of Russian actions in Chechnya ignores an important fact, which is that Chechnya is a conquered country, more a colony of Russia than a part of it. Russia conquered it in a long and brutal war in 19th Century against fierce Chechen resistance, eventually subduing the Chechens by destroying their towns and villages and burning their crops. Now, in the 20th Century, the Russians are trying to reconquer it using much the same brutal methods. In contrast, other colonial powers have gotten rid of their colonies or arrived at some mutually satisfactory arrangement, as in the case of the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

A Russophile can believe with much justification that the Russian Federation cannot become a democratic country if it takes wholesale slaughters to keep it together.

J. G. RELICH

Huntington Beach

* It is truly inane for us Americans to be upset about what Boris Yeltsin is doing in Chechnya. After all, we nearly worship our own Abraham Lincoln for having done the same thing here.

ROBERT RIEDEL

Torrance

* Defending Russia’s suppression of Chechen independence, Kupchan asks rhetorically, “Which established democracy, with the possible exception of Canada, is prepared to grant independence to whatever region desires it?” Since you asked:

United Kingdom (Irish Republic, 1922, perhaps extending to Northern Ireland this year); United States (Puerto Rico, on request); India (founders freely agreed to the establishment of Pakistan, 1947); Malaysia (Singapore, 1965); Israel (Gaza and West Bank); former Czechoslovakia.

More interesting, notice the un-democracies that granted independence in the 20th Century: Colombia (Panama, 1903); Italy (Vatican City, 1929); South Africa (Namibia, 1990); the Soviet Union (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, in 1991, before the decision to dissolve the Soviet Union was taken by the 12 remaining republics).

LEON ROTH

Highland