Salambek Naibovich Khadzhiyev (Russian: Саламбе́к Наи́бович Хаджи́ев; 7 January 1941 – 2 March 2018) was a Soviet-Russian Chechen petrochemist, businessman and politician who was the first Chairman of the Government of National Revival of the Chechen Republic.[1] He specialized in the production of low-pour, high-density petroleum fuels transformations of hydrocarbons on zeolite that contain catalysts. He was also the first and only Chechen to hold a ministerial position in the Soviet Union.[2] In 1991, he headed the Ministry of Chemical and Petrochemical Industry of the USSR.[3] During the First Chechen War in 1995 he was the chairman of the Government of the National Revival of Chechnya.[2]

Salambek Khadzhiev
Саламбек Хаджиев
Khadzhiyev in 2017
1st Chairman of the Government of National Revival of the Chechen Republic
In office
16 January 1995 – 23 October 1995
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byDoku Zavgayev
2nd Minister of the Chemical and Oil Refining Industry of the Soviet Union
In office
9 April 1991 – 28 August 1991
Appointed byValentin Pavlov
Preceded byNikolay Vasilievich Lemaev
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Personal details
Born(1941-01-07)7 January 1941
Shali, Checheno-Ingush ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Chechnya, Russia)
Died2 March 2018(2018-03-02) (aged 77)
Israel
Alma materGrozny State Oil Technical University
ProfessionPetrochemist

Biography

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Khadzhiyev was born in the village of Shali, Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. He spent his childhood in the village of Rovnoye in the Dzhambul district of Kazakhstan, where he was deported with his family. He returned to his homeland in 1957, when the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was restored. He graduated from the Grozny State Oil Technical University with a degree in oil and gas process in engineering.[4]

He worked at the Grozny Oil Research Institute (one of the leading in the USSR oil industry), where he rose from junior researcher to a director.

In 1990 he was elected a deputy of the Supreme Council of the Chechen-Ingushetia [ru] of the 9th convocation.[5]

In 1991, Khadzhiyev became the Minister of the Petrochemical Industry of the Soviet Union, becoming the first Chechen in the USSR to hold a ministerial position.[5] He was a member of scientific council and the Interdepartmental Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences and a member of the State Committee for Science and Technology of the USSR on petrochemistry. He was a member of the editorial board of the journal "Chemistry and Technology of Fuel and Oils" and authored numerous scientific papers.[6]

Chairman of the government of national revival of Chechnya

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In 1995, during the First Chechen War, he headed the Government of the Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic.

The appointment took place on 16 January, on the day of the televised address of the Prime Minister of Russia Viktor Chernomyrdin to the Russian people, in which he announced the intention of the federal leadership to form a capable government in Chechnya for a transitional period.[7] According to other sources, he headed the Government of the National Revival of Chechnya on November 23, 1994.[8] In March, Khadzhiev met with the president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, at his residence outside Moscow in his capacity as head of a federal subject.

In July 1995, he announced his resignation, which was regarded by the journalists of the Kommersant newspaper as the readiness of the federal authorities to sacrifice figures in anticipation of possible negotiations with the separatists of Dzhokhar Dudayev.[9] However, he resigned later on October 23, 1995.[10][11] After being removed from this post, at the end of 1995, he was then appointed as the first deputy head of the territorial administration of federal executive bodies in the Chechen Republic.[12]

In Russia

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In 1995, he was involved in the organization of the Southern Oil Company.

In March 1996, Khadzhiyev participated in a meeting of the VIP club of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation as chairman of the State Committee for Industrial Policy.[13]

In 1996, Salambek Khadzhiev became a member of the board of directors of Ecotech Oil, a large trading company that supplies gasoline to the Moscow Region and regions of Central Russia, and then headed it. He is also the owner of 80 percent of the shares of this company.[14] In April 2002, he sold 50 gas stations owned by the company to Slavneft.[15]

Personal life and death

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He was married to Svetlana Muslimovna Gairbekova and had 3 children: Leila, Aset and Bulat. He also has ten grandchildren. His sister, Tamara Khadzhieva, was the head of the Shali district branch of the United Russia party since its founding in 2002. In July 2004 she was killed by unknown perpetrators from gunshot wounds in her own house in Shali.[16][17] Earlier in the same year, two close relatives of Salambek Khadzhiev, who were employees of the Shali District Department of Internal Affairs, were killed as well.[17]

He died after a severe long illness in a clinic in Israel on March 2, 2018. He was buried in Chechnya, in his home city of Shali at a family cemetery.[18]

References

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  1. ^ "Chechen Republic". 28 September 2011. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  2. ^ a b "CHECHEN REPUBLIC OF ICCHKERI: general review". www.igpi.ru. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  3. ^ Erlanger, Steven (29 March 1995). "Grozny Journal; Picking Up, After Guns Have Done Their Worst". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  4. ^ "Памяти академика Саламбека Хаджиева". Рамблер/новости (in Russian). Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  5. ^ a b Список народных депутатов Чечено-Ингушской АССР девятого созыва, народных депутатов СССР и РСФСР двенадцатого созыва от Чечено-Ингушской АССР [List of people's deputies of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR of the ninth convocation, people's deputies of the USSR and the RSFSR of the twelfth convocation from the Chechen-Ingush ASSR] (in Russian). 1990. p. 192.
  6. ^ "ЧЕЧНЯ FREE.RU | Новости, История, Культура, Традиции чеченцев, Экономика - Знаменитые чеченцы". 16 July 2011. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  7. ^ "Анализ опыта боевого применения сил и средств разведки СВ во внутреннем вооруженном конфликте в Чечне". www.vrazvedka.ru. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Саламбек Хаджиев вернулся в политику". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 27 November 2002. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  9. ^ "Ситуация в Чечне". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 1 July 1995. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  10. ^ "Dmitry Kamyshev. The situation around Chechnya. The path from one chair to another ran through Moscow". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 24 October 1995. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  11. ^ "RUSSIA-CHECHNYA: a chain of mistakes and crimes. Chronicle of the armed conflict. 1995. October". 25 December 2016. Archived from the original on 25 December 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  12. ^ "Alla Barakhova, Nikolay Gulko. They got it from under Chechnya" (in Russian). 14 March 2005. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  13. ^ Newspaper "Kommersant", No. 51 (1009), 03/28/1996 heading "Vedomosti"
  14. ^ "Саламбек Хаджиев вернулся в политику". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 27 November 2002. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  15. ^ ""Славнефть" купила историческую сеть АЗС". www.kommersant.ru (in Russian). 15 November 2002. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  16. ^ Liberty, Radio Free Europe/Radio (20 July 2004). "Former Pro-Moscow Chechen Leader's Sister Murdered (Newsline Volume 8 Number 136)". Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  17. ^ a b "В Шали убита сестра академика РАН Саламбека Хаджиева". NEWSru.com (in Russian). 18 July 2004. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  18. ^ "Вечерняя Москва - Памяти академика Саламбека Хаджиева". 7 March 2018. Archived from the original on 7 March 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2022.