History of Christianity in Chechnya and Ingushetia in the middle ages and the modern period

The article deals with the emergence and development of the Christian religion in Chechnya and Ingushetia during the Middle Ages and the Modern Period. The purpose of the study is to trace the formation of Vainakh Christianity, analyze the factors that contributed to its development and led to extinction, identify its influence on the culture and life of Vainakh. The author used a descriptive- narrative, historical-genetic, comparative, typological and systemic method, based on data from ethnographic and archaeological sources of the 19th and 20th centuries, analysis of historical literature and his own field studies undertaken in the Chechen Republic in 2017. The relevance of the work is that an analysis of the history of the formation and existence of one of the world’s religion in the North- East Caucasus in conditions of interethnic and interfaith interaction. The novelty lies in the fact that the author traces the continuity and duration of the process of Christianization of Nakh societies, as well as the continued strong influence of the Christian religion on the language, beliefs and life of Chechens and Ingush. The Christianization of Chechnya and Ingushetia took place in the 11th - 13th centuries and was associated with the active missionary activities of the Georgian Orthodox Church. The decline of Christianity began after the invasion of Timur at the end of the 14th century. In the 16th - 17th centuries Orthodoxy in the region experienced a short revival. In the 18th to first half of the 19th century the authorities of the Russian Empire tried to re-Christianize Ingushetia, but for a number of internal and external reasons they could not succeed.