One of the costliest wars in the history for the Russian Federation. Thousands of young conscripts were butchered. Ended in a humiliating defeat for the Russian Armed Forces. With a population of less than one million, the Chechens defeated the Russian Army (which itself had an active manpower of 3 million). All started with the dissolution of the USSR. Ethnic Chechens, who constituted for some two-third of the population in Chechenya drove out the federal authorities and seized power. Thousands of non-Chechens were massacred by Chechen fanatics and some 300,000 were driven out. After a stalemate of 3 years, the Russian president (a drunkard called Boris Yeltsin) ordered the army to attack the rebels. Said-Magomed Kakiyev, a pro-Russian Chechen led the assault in the initial stages, with a few hundred of his supporters, with the proper Russian forces supporting them. The Rebels soon routed Kakiyev's troops and the battle soon shifted to a pitched war between the foreign mercenaries (from Afghanistan, Paksitan, Saudi Arabia.etc) and the Russian Army (mostly 17 and 18 year old conscripts).
There was not much resistance from the rebels until the army reached the regional capital, Grozny. At that point Yeltsin did a fatal miscalculation. Rather than using experienced soldiers to advance in to Grozny, large number of young conscripts were forced to the front-lines. Some 2,000 soldiers were butchered in the first few days due to their lack of experience and training (A partial list containing the names of those who died can be found here). Then Yeltsin asked his generals to undertake a carpet bombing campaign. The bombing claimed some 35,000 lives. About 90% of those who died were ethnic Russians, as they were unable to flee the city unlike the ethnic Chechens, who had relatives in the mountains. 5,000 of those who died were children. At this point some 5,000 foreign Islamic radicals were fighting on the Chechen side. They were also involved in the mass murder of the native Christian population. After Grozny, the Russian army quickly over-ran many of the smaller towns and villages. At this point the Chechen rebels began their hostage-taking campaigns, forcing the Russian side to the negotiation table. Eventually, Yeltsin decided to pullback his troops from Chechenya. Total number of deaths as a result of the First Chechen War Total dead: 90,000 to 100,000 Russian soldiers: 5,000 to 7,000 Ethnic Russian civilians: 50,000 Chechen militants + Foreign Mercenaries: 18,000 Chechen civilians: 20,000
