In Chechnya: A Small Victorious War Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal tell the full story of how the Kremlin came to embark on such an ill-judged military adventure and how the Chechen fighters fought back. Switching between Chechnya and Moscow, the authors cover the whole sweep of the war from the horrendous destruction of the Russian invasion to the Chechens' dramatic retaliation to force the Russian army out. The book traces the roots of the conflict: the Chechens' history of resistance to the Russian empire, the rogue state set up by the eccentric general-turned-president Jokhar Dudayev as the Soviet Union fell apart, and the Kremlin court politics that precipitated the decision to invade Chechnya. With its exclusive material and eye-witness reporting, Chechnya: A Small Victorious War is the definitive account of the most tragic and extraordinary story to emerge from the end of the Soviet Union. It is also the story of the flamboyant, anarchic and unyielding Chechens and their struggle for survival.