Grozny

 Grozny

Grant Piper

Apr 6

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3 min read

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The Most Destroyed City On Earth

You’ll never guess what country is to blame

Grozny, 1995 (Public domain)

If a person was asked to identify the most destroyed city on Earth right now many people would likely point to Ukraine and say “take your pick”. But the title of most destroyed city was actually given out to a city in Russia. No one is vying for the title of the most destroyed city but it is a superlative that was given out by the United Nations. In 2003, the United Nations declared Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth.

It will come as no surprise to many people today to learn that the Russian military was responsible for the destruction of Grozny. The actions of the Russian army, led by Vladimir Putin, ground the city of Grozny to ashes starting in 1999.

The Siege of Grozny

The apocalyptic finale to the battle in Grozny came after years of fighting between Chechnyan rebels in the Caucuses and the weakened Russian Federation following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Chechnyan people were hoping to break away from Russia and form an independent Muslim nation. Success could have galvanized the other peoples in the Caucuses to launch their own rebellions against Russia.

Instead of a victory, the Chechnyans faced the wrath of Russia. The Russians had no intention of letting more of their former empire slip away. In a scene that, again, sounds familiar to today the Russians ran into a lot of heavy resistance in Chechnya that led to far more losses than expected.

Grozny is the capital of Chechnya and is the cultural heart of the region. Instead of fighting a bloody and losing battle in the streets, the Russians decided to make an example out of Grozny.

In 1999, the Russian military captured key heights around the city and proceeded to brutally bombard the city for weeks on end. The battle quickly devolved into a siege that lasted over a month. The Russians surrounded the city and continuously hit it with heavy weaponry day after day, night after night until there was nothing left.

The United Nations claimed that every building in Grozny was damaged or destroyed in the fighting. 100% of the city was scarred by war.

After the capital had been reduced to rubble the Russians rolled in and deposed the separatist government and seized control. The final victory was declared in 2000 and marked by a military parade through the ruins of the city.

When the United Nations entered the city as part of a diplomatic aid mission after the fighting had ceased they were shocked. They said that Grozny had been reduced to “a devastated and still insecure wasteland littered with bodies”. Thousands of civilians lost their lives and the city took years to recover.

Aftermath

Grozny is not a household name in the West but it is an incident well known to the people of Eastern Europe. It showed that the Russian Federation was still capable of Soviet-style tactics in quelling dissent. If a battle could not be won on the ground it could be won from afar. The Chechnyan rebellion was utterly crushed following the destruction of Grozny.

It is prudent to remember that the Russian military is a master of artillery warfare. They were masters of artillery bombardment in WWI and WWII and continued to hone the art of long distance destruction during the Cold War. Russia is capable, and occasionally willing, to reduce entire cities to dust to achieve their goals.

They did it to Grozny. Russia made Grozny the most destroyed city on Earth and that was just 22 years ago.