The packed floor of the 190-ton open-hearth furnace

The origins of soviet national autonomy

“…In contrast to the other peoples only one per cent of Chechens were literate in 1920, and although the oil industry provided lucrative employment in the region, it was mostly Russian workers who benefited from the industry. 61 While the Kabardin were granted autonomy as a result of their relative economic progress, in the case of the Chechens, it was precisely their backwardness which pointed to autonomy as a way of improving their situation.…”