Was Chechnya forcibly incorporated into the Imperial Russian Empire?
If it was forcibly incorporated, it would be occupation.
I have mixed views on Chechnya, and both sides are doing wrong, but the source of the problem is imperialism.
We must remember, that the Chechens have a history of war with the Russians, from the time of the famous IMam Shamyl of the mid 19th century. It was only after Imam Shamyl los tthe war, that the Russian hegemony over the Caucusus was established.
The Chechens were brutally punished by Stalin, and lost 20-50 percent of their population, when they were forcibly deported from their homelands, and only allowed to come back after decades.
The Chechens had always been an industrious, and hard working people, and were heavily represented in the armed forces, especially the Soviet Air force, which also recruited and trained in Chechnya.
The first spark was the assasination of the famous Russian leader of the opposition, Hizbulatov (during Yeltsin's era, if I remember). He was a heavy duty politician, who would have ousted Yetlsin, and was set to become the next Russian President. He was obviously a muslim, although I'm not sure if he was chechen.
Dzhokar Dudayev, himself an ex-major general in the Air force, was the real leader of the seperatists, who won the elections and delared Chechnya as an Independant state. He was a brilliant military strategist, and while he was alive, the Russians stood no chance. The Russians were soundly defeated, and their army left Chechnya, and it remained an Independant state for a couple of years, if not in name.
It was only after he was killed by a missile, that was tracking his satellite telephone signal, that the Russians decided to wrest the initiative back, and poured troops into Chechnya again. It was speculated at the time, that the Americans helped kill Dudayev using their technology.
After Dudayev's death, the Chechen leadership reverted to younger people like salman rudayev and shamil basyev, and a hardcore fundamentalist outlook bred by the jihad began to take shape. Aslan maskhadov was a liberal, but his authority not absolute.
ps. It's quite funny, but no search engine is giving any information about Hiabulatov any more? its as if the word doesn't exist anymore, guess somebody's blocked it, because i remember googling hizbulatov a couple of years ago...hmm.