referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

on creating the

Republic of Ingushetia Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land border ...

within

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

was held in Ingushetia on 30 November 1991.

Question

Background

Chechnya Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...

and

Ingushetia Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country o ...

were part of the

Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic When the Soviet Union existed, different governments had ruled the northern Caucasus regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Within the Mountain Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, later annexed into the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republ ...

within the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

. On 7 September 1991, the pro-independence Chechen National Congress came to power in the republic. On 15 September 1991, the Assembly of Ingush Deputies passed a resolution, announcing secession from Checheno-Ingushetia to remain within the RSFSR. On 15 October, a referendum was announced to confirm this decision. The Ingush secession was accepted by the Chechen leadership and finalized on 4 June 1992 with the Russian law "On the Creation of the Ingush Republic in the Russian Federation". The Ingush feared that joining the independent Chechnya would have meant compromising the territorial claims on

Prigorodny District Prigorodny District (Russian: Пригородный район) is the name of several administrative and municipal districts in Russia: * Prigorodny District, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, an administrative and municipal district of the Re ...

, which is a subject of a dispute between the Ingush and

Ossetians The Ossetians ( or ; ),Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v"Ossete" also known as Ossetes ( ), Ossets ( ), and Alans ( ), are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern side ...

. The Ingush lost the land following their deportation to Central Asia in 1944, and then recent Russian law

On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples ''On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples'' () is the law N 1107-I of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic signed on April 29, 1991 and updated by the July 1, 1993 law N 5303-I of the Russian Federation. The law was preceded by th ...

, passed in April 1991, gave them hopes of returning the territory. However, the Russian law "On the Creation of the Ingush Republic in the Russian Federation" did not include the disputed lands within the newly created Republic of Ingushetia. The dispute remained unresolved and this soon led to the

armed conflict War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

in the region.

Results

References

{{Soviet elections Referendums in Russia Referendums in the Soviet Union 1991 referendums History of Ingushetia