Existential Threat as a Trigger of Fertility Rates: Understanding Chechen Resilience

Abstract

This research is focused on the explanation of high fertility rates of the Chechens. The main assumption is that increase in fertility is a reaction of the nation to the Russo-Chechen conflict that lasts more than 200 years. The overview of the three large epochs (The Caucasian War 1801-1864, Chechen deportation and exile 1944-1957, and the last two Russo-Chechen Wars) when the Chechens lost a significant part of the population and presentation of the demographic statistics provide the background for such assumption.The results of qualitative research confirm all three posed hypotheses. The same spirit of resistance that does not allow the Chechens to ignore a challenge plays the main role in encouraging increase in fertility rates. The latter is seen as a mean to increase nation’s capacity for survival and defense. The increase in fertility is necessitated by the imposition of existential threat by a foreign power.