GROZNY, Chechnya -- Vera Naumkina, 50, a small woman in a worn scarf, stood in the snow outside her home. Two pale-faced children clung close to her leg, together with a couple of stray dogs and a tiny puppy, warming themselves beside a weak fire.
"This is where we live, we have been here for nearly a year now. It will be the anniversary on Dec. 17," she said, gesturing with a smile at the dark entrance of the underground bunker that yawned black and ugly against the snow-covered Tolstoy Park.
The scene around them was one of desolation. On one side of the road slouched a line of teetering, wrecked apartment blocks, on the other lay piles of rubble and rafters: This is all that is left of the pretty, small houses of the residential Leninsky District in central Grozny.
Rumbling explosions in the distance reverberate across the snow-muffled city, a reminder of why Naumkina, her two daughters and two grand on end in the bunker's thick low-roofed rooms, sheltering from the most savage onslaught of the war as Russian jets carried out raid after raid on the Chechen capital.
One year ago Monday, Russian tanks rolled into the republic of 1 million people. It was a quiet beginning to a brutal war that destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and killed an estimated 25,000 people.
The 16 still living in the park bunker are just a few of the tens of thousands who have lost their homes. The city of Grozny still lies in ruins. Ice-bound as it was last winter, it looks much like it did a year ago, a city at war.
Deep craters scar the ground, whole swathes of the city are being demolished. A broken tree stands over an unexploded rocket, still sticking out of the ground where it landed.
Russian tanks maneuver through the bomb sites, and soldiers, their faces grimy and weatherbeaten, guard checkpoints across the city.
"It is okay, we have a stove," said one, pointing to a blackened, smoking pipe sticking out of a small mound of sandbags. Asked how long he thought he would be in Chechnya, he shrugged and turned away: "Who knows?"
The Kremlin anticipated a quick victory when it sent troops in to restore Moscow rule, but from the very beginning they encountered fierce and well prepared resistance.
Lightly armed Chechen fighters astonished the world by fighting off the first Russian attempt to storm the city, destroying dozens upon dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in one night. A thousand Russian soldiers died in the ensuing mayhem, many burned in their vehicles or shot as they leapt out.
A military commission in Moscow said this week the total Russian dead to date was 3,015. Observers put the real figure higher.
Moscow then unleashed the power of its combined air and artillery forces. Slowly they bludgeoned the city into submission, killing huge numbers of civilians, and eventually forcing the Chechen fighters out of the city.
After five months the Russian forces advanced into the hills where they are still dug in, and from where they launch sporadic artillery attacks on the string of villages that the Chechen rebels hold.
By May, Russian forces had still not taken crucial villages in southern Chechnya. Perched in the foothills over the plain, the villages of Orekhovo, Stary Achkoi and Bamut remain unconquered today.
This week, Russian soldiers crouched around fires in the snow and minus 4 degree Celsius frost as they did a year ago. Their tents and posts have a more permanent feel but their presence is even more hated than a year ago.
Ordinary Chechens feel deeply alienated, bitter and angry at Moscow for a senseless and cruel war, and insulted that the Kremlin has decided to hold elections before any permanent peace deal has been agreed.
Apti Shakhgiriyev, 34, commander of a tank battalion, was wounded on the second day of the war, when he fought off advancing Russian tanks north of Grozny. He is now studying at Grozny's oil institute, moving freely in the city because "the Russians do not know who I am.
"Independence is still our first demand," he said. "There is no doubt among the fighters. Some feel low, especially those who have lost their health, and those who have lost limbs. But there is no doubt in their minds. If anything, we are hardened. We know what it will be like [under Russian rule]. After this year, we can never be part of Russia."
"This is where we live, we have been here for nearly a year now. It will be the anniversary on Dec. 17," she said, gesturing with a smile at the dark entrance of the underground bunker that yawned black and ugly against the snow-covered Tolstoy Park.
The scene around them was one of desolation. On one side of the road slouched a line of teetering, wrecked apartment blocks, on the other lay piles of rubble and rafters: This is all that is left of the pretty, small houses of the residential Leninsky District in central Grozny.
Rumbling explosions in the distance reverberate across the snow-muffled city, a reminder of why Naumkina, her two daughters and two grand on end in the bunker's thick low-roofed rooms, sheltering from the most savage onslaught of the war as Russian jets carried out raid after raid on the Chechen capital.
One year ago Monday, Russian tanks rolled into the republic of 1 million people. It was a quiet beginning to a brutal war that destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and killed an estimated 25,000 people.
The 16 still living in the park bunker are just a few of the tens of thousands who have lost their homes. The city of Grozny still lies in ruins. Ice-bound as it was last winter, it looks much like it did a year ago, a city at war.
Deep craters scar the ground, whole swathes of the city are being demolished. A broken tree stands over an unexploded rocket, still sticking out of the ground where it landed.
Russian tanks maneuver through the bomb sites, and soldiers, their faces grimy and weatherbeaten, guard checkpoints across the city.
"It is okay, we have a stove," said one, pointing to a blackened, smoking pipe sticking out of a small mound of sandbags. Asked how long he thought he would be in Chechnya, he shrugged and turned away: "Who knows?"
The Kremlin anticipated a quick victory when it sent troops in to restore Moscow rule, but from the very beginning they encountered fierce and well prepared resistance.
Lightly armed Chechen fighters astonished the world by fighting off the first Russian attempt to storm the city, destroying dozens upon dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in one night. A thousand Russian soldiers died in the ensuing mayhem, many burned in their vehicles or shot as they leapt out.
A military commission in Moscow said this week the total Russian dead to date was 3,015. Observers put the real figure higher.
Moscow then unleashed the power of its combined air and artillery forces. Slowly they bludgeoned the city into submission, killing huge numbers of civilians, and eventually forcing the Chechen fighters out of the city.
After five months the Russian forces advanced into the hills where they are still dug in, and from where they launch sporadic artillery attacks on the string of villages that the Chechen rebels hold.
By May, Russian forces had still not taken crucial villages in southern Chechnya. Perched in the foothills over the plain, the villages of Orekhovo, Stary Achkoi and Bamut remain unconquered today.
This week, Russian soldiers crouched around fires in the snow and minus 4 degree Celsius frost as they did a year ago. Their tents and posts have a more permanent feel but their presence is even more hated than a year ago.
Ordinary Chechens feel deeply alienated, bitter and angry at Moscow for a senseless and cruel war, and insulted that the Kremlin has decided to hold elections before any permanent peace deal has been agreed.
Apti Shakhgiriyev, 34, commander of a tank battalion, was wounded on the second day of the war, when he fought off advancing Russian tanks north of Grozny. He is now studying at Grozny's oil institute, moving freely in the city because "the Russians do not know who I am.
"Independence is still our first demand," he said. "There is no doubt among the fighters. Some feel low, especially those who have lost their health, and those who have lost limbs. But there is no doubt in their minds. If anything, we are hardened. We know what it will be like [under Russian rule]. After this year, we can never be part of Russia."
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