Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush
The Chechens and the Ingush speak languages that are closely related and have a degree of passive intelligibility, both being Vainakh languages. The Chechen-Russian conflict is one of the longest and most protracted conflicts in modern history, spanning three centuries. Its origins date back to 1785, when the Chechens fought against Russian expansionism into the Caucasus. The Caucasus War was fought between 1817 and 1864. The Russian Empire succeeded in annexing the area and subjugating its people, but also killed or deported numerous non-Russian peoples and was responsible for the Circassian genocide. The Circassians, the Ubykh and the Abaza were subsequently resettled to the Ottoman Empire. However, other Caucasus people were affected as well. There were up to 1.5 million Chechens in the Caucasus in 1847, but as a result of this war and ensuing expulsions, their number dropped to 140,000 in 1861, and then further to 116,000 in 1867. In 1865, at least 39,000 Chechens were exiled to the Ottoman Empire by the Russian Empire.
Teip
Historically, if non-Chechen minorities living in Chechen lands wanted to take part in the political processes of the Chechen nation, and integrate into it, they would request admittance as an ethnic teip. They would continue, for a time, to speak their other languages, but also learned Chechen. Due to the encouragement of teip exogamy, as the generations passed, they would come to be heavily intermarried into the Chechen nation and as a result, be slowly Chechenized culturally and linguistically. The level of Chechenization varies between these foreign-origin teips, with some well-preserving their cultural traits and others not. They are nonetheless known as impure teips (not in a derogatory sense), for their foreign origin. Their loyalty to the nation is not any more in question than a Chechen-origin teip.