The name Chechnya was given to the people by the Russians, since that was the name of the first Nokhchii city that they came across.
             From the seventh to the seventeenth centuries, the region was penetrated by the Sunni Muslims. The Nokhchii adopted this religion while keeping some of their basic animistic structure as well. At the same time Orthodox Christianity had pushed through the Daryal Pass and into Georgia. The conversion of the Golden Horde caused the Muslims to penetrate again into the Caucasus, halting the spread of Christianity southward.
             The Chechens lived mainly in the mountains until a little ice age ensued in the first half of the sixteenth century. This disrupted their way of life and pushed them back down the mountains to where they had lived before. When they arrived they found that the area had become inhabited by Cossacks, relatively lawless groups of mixed origin who conducted plundering raids on their Muslim neighbors, while clinging fervently to their Orthodox Christian religion.
             The Cossacks had already allowed the Russians, under Ivan the Terrible, to construct forts on the river Sunzha in exchange for forgiveness of their crimes. As the Chechens were forced back into their territory there were skirmishes for a couple of hundred years between the Muslim Chechens and the Orthodox Russians and Cossacks. The problem seemed to center around Georgia. Since they had already been converted to Christianity before Islam sealed off the Caucasus Mountains, they were surrounded by the religion of Islam and were constantly asking Russia for help against the Muslims. In order for the Russians to send help, they had to deal with the Muslims of the Caucasus. Mainly with the resistance of the Chechens and the peoples of Dagestan who held the passes through the mountains.
             The Caucasus people were defending themselves well against the Russian invaders until the reign of Catherine the Great. She pushed her forts right up...